The Reformist Movement (french: Mouvement Réformateur, MR) is a liberal

French-speaking French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in No ...

political party in Belgium. MR is traditionally a conservative-liberal party, but it also contains social-liberal factions. The party is in coalition as part of the Michel Government then Wilmès Government since October 2014, having provided two prime ministers since. After the 2007 general election the MR was the largest

Francophone French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

political formation in Belgium, a position that was regained by the

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of ...

in the 2010 general election. The MR is an alliance between three French-speaking and one German-speaking liberal parties. The Liberal Reformist Party (PRL) and the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) started the alliance in 1993, and were joined in 1998 by the

Citizens' Movement for Change Citizens' Movement for Change (french: Mouvement des Citoyens pour le Changement, MCC) is a Christian-democratic political party in the French Community of Belgium founded by Gérard Deprez in 1998. Deprez was the leader of the Francophone Chris ...

(MCC). The alliance was then known as the PRL-FDF-MCC federation. The alliance became the MR during a congress in 2002, where the German-speaking liberal party, the Party for Freedom and Progress joined as well. The label PRL is no longer used, and the three other parties still use their own names. The MR is a member of

Liberal International Liberal International (LI) is a worldwide organization of liberal political parties - a political international. It was founded in Oxford in 1947 and has become the pre-eminent network for liberal parties, aiming to strengthen liberalism aroun ...

and the

Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe The Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE; french: Alliance des Démocrates et des Libéraux pour l'Europe, ADLE) is a transnational alliance between two European political parties, the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europ ...

(ALDE) Party. However, on 25 September 2011, the FDF decided to leave the coalition. They did not agree with the manner in which president Charles Michel defended the rights of the French-speaking people in the agreement concerning the splitting of the

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde The area within Belgium known as Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde encompasses the bilingual—French and Dutch— Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking area of Halle-Vilv ...

district, during the 2010–11 Belgian government formation.

Ideology and policies

Although the MR's original ideology emphasised

classical liberalism Classical liberalism is a political tradition and a branch of liberalism that advocates free market and laissez-faire economics; civil liberties under the rule of law with especial emphasis on individual autonomy, limited government, e ...

and

free market In economics, a free market is an economic system in which the prices of goods and services are determined by supply and demand expressed by sellers and buyers. Such markets, as modeled, operate without the intervention of government or any ot ...

economics, it has of late joined the general trend of Belgian liberals to accept elements of

social liberalism Social liberalism (german: Sozialliberalismus, es, socioliberalismo, nl, Sociaalliberalisme), also known as new liberalism in the United Kingdom, modern liberalism, or simply liberalism in the contemporary United States, left-liberalism ...

under the influence of

Dirk Verhofstadt Dirk Verhofstadt (born 25 August 1955 in Dendermonde) is a Belgian social liberal ( Rawlsian) theorist and younger brother of former Belgian Prime Minister and former ALDE European Parliament Leader Guy Verhofstadt. He has a keen interest in ...

, whose brother

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who was the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2009 to 2019, and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium ...

led the MR's Flemish counterpart, the

Open VLD 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 ...

. On its current platform, the party states that it is economically and socially liberal. It supports lower taxes, aims to maximize the well-being of citizens but also wants to fight tax evasion. MR also supports Belgian participation in the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are located primarily in Europe, Europe. The union has a total area of ...

and

NATO The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two N ...

Presidents

* 2002–2003: Daniel Ducarme * 2003–2004:

Antoine Duquesne Antoine Duquesne (; 3 February 1941 – 4 November 2010) was a Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for the French Community of Belgium with the MR/ MCC/ PRL, Member of the Bureau of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats ...

* 2004–2011: Didier Reynders * 2011–2014: Charles Michel * 2014–2019: Olivier Chastel * 2019: Charles Michel * 2019–present: Georges-Louis Bouchez

Representation in EU Institutions

In the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the Legislature, legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven Institutions of the European Union, institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and in ...

, Mouvément Reformateur sits in the Renew Europe group with two MEPs. In the European Committee of the Regions, Mouvément Reformateur sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with two full and one alternate member for the 2020-2025 mandate. Willy Borsus is an ex officio member of the Renew Europe CoR Bureau.

Electoral results

Chamber of Representatives

Senate

Regional

Brussels Parliament

Walloon Parliament

European Parliament

Notable figures

* Willy Borsus *

Christine Defraigne Christine Defraigne (born 1962) is a Belgian politician and a member of the MR. She was the President of the Belgian Senate, in office 2014 to 2018. Political views In 2009 Christine Defraigne proposed a nationwide ban of the burqa. She has a ...

* Alain Destexhe * Daniel Ducarme *

* Jean Gol * Sabine Laruelle * Charles Michel * Louis Michel * Didier Reynders *

Jacques Simonet Jacques Simonet (21 December 1963 – 14 June 2007) was a Belgian politician and a former Minister-President of the Brussels-Capital Region. Life He is the son of Henri Simonet, former Socialist Party minister and for many years mayor of Anderle ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Mouvement Reformateur Conservative liberal parties Classical liberal parties Francophone political parties in Belgium Liberal International Liberal parties in Belgium Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe Party member parties Political parties established in 2002 2002 establishments in Belgium Pro-European political parties in Belgium