The Wilmès I Government was a caretaker

Federal Government of Belgium The Federal Government of Belgium ( nl, Federale regering, french: Gouvernement fédéral, german: Föderalregierung) exercises executive power in the Kingdom of Belgium. It consists of ministers and secretary of state ("junior", or deputy-min ...

, led by

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister i ...

Sophie Wilmès Sophie Wilmès (; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as minister of Foreign Affairs from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Reformist Movement, she is the fir ...

, the first ever female Prime Minister of Belgium.

History

The creation of the Wilmès Government was announced on 26 October 2019, when previous Prime Minister

Charles Michel Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician serving as the president of the European Council since 2019. He previously served as the prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Michel became the minister of Developm ...

announced he would be succeeded by

ultimately on 1 November 2019, effectively forming a new government. Charles Michel left his post as he had been elected to become the next President of the European Council as from 1 December 2019 and wanted to have sufficient time to prepare for his role as President of the European Council hence leaving already by November. The Wilmès Government was governing as a caretaker government, until a new cabinet was formed based on the results of the federal elections of 26 May 2019, for which negotiations were still ongoing. Hence the government was a continuation of the

centre Center or centre may refer to: Mathematics * Center (geometry), the middle of an object * Center (algebra), used in various contexts ** Center (group theory) ** Center (ring theory) * Graph center, the set of all vertices of minimum eccentri ...

minority coalition cabinet of

Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian Democratic and Flemish (, , CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism (ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...

(CD&V), the

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats french: Libéraux et démocrates flamands ouverts , abbreviation = Open Vld , logo = , leader1_title = President , leader1_name = Egbert Lachaert , foundation = 1992 (VLD)2007 (Open Vld) , predecessor = P ...

(Open Vld) and the

Reformist Movement The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as ...

(MR) which together constituted the Michel II Government. On 16 March, the Wilmès Government was given support by several opposition parties to handle the coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, for which the cabinet is going to be supported by a majority in parliament by granting it special powers under the form of the

Wilmès II Government The Wilmès II Government was a minority Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, the first female Prime Minister of Belgium. Wilmès had been selected as a caretaker Prime Minister following the 2019 Belgian federal ...

. The opposition parties were giving support for three months to take corona measures, with a possible further three month extension, are the socialists ( sp.a & PS), the greens (

Groen Groen or de Groen is a surname of Dutch origin, meaning ''green''.

and

Ecolo Ecolo, officially Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales'', (English: Confederate Ecologists for the Organisation of Original Struggles)'' is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The ...

), the cdH and

DéFI DéFI () is a social-liberal, liberal, regionalist political party in Belgium mainly known for defending French-speakers’ interests in and near the Brussels region. The party is led by François de Smet, a member of the Chamber of Represen ...

, leaving only the N-VA and the PVDA/PTB and

Vlaams Belang , ideology = , predecessor = Vlaams Blok , position = , europarl = Identity and Democracy , european = Identity and Democracy Party , youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren , colours = ...

in the opposition.

Composition

The composition of the government was similar to that of the Michel II Government, with the only differences being

taking over the role of

as Prime Minister and David Clarinval coming in to replace Wilmès as Minister of Budget, Civil Service, National Lottery and Scientific Policy.

Changes in composition

* On 30 November 2019,

Philippe Goffin Philippe Goffin (born 1 April 1967) is a Belgian politician who served as Minister of Foreign Affairs and Minister of Defence from 30 November 2019 to 1 October 2020. Political career In the federal elections of 26 May 2019, he ran in Liège Pro ...

took the place of

Didier Reynders Didier Reynders (; born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) serving as European Commissioner for Justice since 2019. He held various positions in public institutions before becoming a member of ...

, taking over the portfolios of Foreign Affairs and

Defence Defense or defence may refer to: Tactical, martial, and political acts or groups * Defense (military), forces primarily intended for warfare * Civil defense, the organizing of civilians to deal with emergencies or enemy attacks * Defense indus ...

. Reynders left his post to take up the role of

European Commissioner for Justice The Commissioner for Justice and Commissioner for Equality are posts in the European Commission. The portfolios of Justice and Equality were previously combined as ''Commissioner for Justice, Consumers and Gender Equality'' under commissioner i ...

in the

Von der Leyen Commission The von der Leyen Commission is the current European Commission, in office since 1 December 2019 and is to last until the 2024 elections. It has Ursula von der Leyen as its president and it further consists of one commissioner from each of the ...

. David Clarinval was appointed the new Deputy Prime Minister for the Mouvement Réformateur

References

{{Belgian governments Belgian governments 2018 establishments in Belgium Cabinets established in 2019 Cabinets disestablished in 2020