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Bart De Wever in 2008.

Bart Albert Liliane De Wever (born in Mortsel, 21 December 1970) is a Flemish politician and since 2004 has been the president of the N-VA, a Flemish party that strives for a strong Flanders in a united Europe. He has also been a member of the Flemish parliament since 2004. He played a prominent role in the 2007 Belgian government formation.

[edit] Biography

De Wever finished his studies at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KUL) as a master in history. During his years as a student, he was a member of the Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, Liberal Flemish Students' Union), the Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV, Catholic Flemish Students' Union) of Antwerp and Louvain. He is also the former editor in chief of Tegenstroom (magazine of KVHV-Antwerp) and Ons Leven (magazine of KVHV-Leuven). Professionally, he was engaged as a scientific assistant working on the 'Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging' (New Encyclopedia of the Flemish Movement), in which he wrote articles about the Taal Aktiekomitee, the Vlaams Blok and the Vlaamse Militanten Orde (Flemish Militants Order), among other topics.

De Wever is apparently seen by some as a conservative with a moderate right-wing image.^{[citation needed]} On 1 August 2008, while being interviewed on an early morning TV programme, he had this to say about his French-speaking fellow-citizens: "I think that there is no French-speaking minority in Flanders; there are immigrants who have to adapt. We ask the Moroccans and the Turks to do that. We don't say to them 'There's a lot of you, so Arabic will become an official language.' That's crazy."^[1] He is also an admirer of the Irish conservative philosopher Edmund Burke, and his Burkean conservatism.

In 2004, he was elected as president of the N-VA with 95% of the votes. He was the only candidate.

De Wever went through a rough stretch in 2006 when he accepted conservative liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker as an N-VA member, which caused a break-up with the CD&V. To make peace with this (much larger) party, Dedecker had to leave. Although he was criticised extensively, the local N-VA leaders reaffirmed their trust in De Wever, which allowed him to remain president.

In the regional elections of 2009, his party won an unexpected 13% of the votes, making N-VA the winner of the elections together with old cartel partner CD&V. N-VA subsequently joined the government, with De Wever choosing to remain party president and appointing two other party members as ministers in the Flemish government and one party member as speaker of the Flemish parliament.

[edit] Political resumé

• Member of the Flemish Parliament. (2004-2007)
• Representative (2007- )
• Member of the district council of Berchem (1996-1997)
• President of the N-VA (2004- )
• Member of Antwerp municipal council (2007- )

[edit] Controversies

[edit] In the company of Jean-Marie Le Pen

In 1996, he was photographed attending a conference by the French far-right leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.^[2]

[edit] Allegation of negationism

In October 2007, in reaction to the apology of the Mayor of Antwerp for his city's collaboration in the deportation of Jews during World War II, Bart De Wever claimed that :

"Antwerp did not organise the deportation of the Jews, it was the victim of Nazi occupation... Those who were in power at the time had to take tricky decisions in difficult times. I don't find it very courageous to stigmatise them now."^[3]

He later apologized to Antwerp Jews.^[4]

Following these events, in a tribune published in Le Monde, the Belgian writer Pierre Mertens claimed that [Bart De Wever was] a "convinced negationist leader". De Wever decided to sue Mertens in court for this allegation.^[5][6]

[edit] References

1. ^ http://www.sudpresse.be/la_une/details/une/Une/2008/08/01/article_nv_a_les_francophones_sont.shtml
2. ^ Pierre Gilissen, La photo qui énerve Bart de Wever, Le Soir, 31 August 2007.
3. ^ A Belgian leader flirts with the far-right, The Economist, 31 October 2007.
4. ^ Flemish nationalist politician apologizes to Antwerp Jews, European Jewish Press, October 2007.
5. ^ (nl) Le Soir daagt De Wever uit, De Standaard, 8 July 2008.
6. ^ (fr) Bart de Wever attaque Pierre Mertens, La Dernière Heure, 8 July 2008.

v • d • e Members of the European Parliament for Belgium 2009–2014 Ivo Belet · Frieda Brepoels · Philip Claeys · Frédéric Daerden · Jean-Marie Dedecker · Jean-Luc Dehaene · Véronique De Keyser · Anne Delvaux · Bart De Wever · Filip Dewinter · Isabelle Durant · Saïd El Khadraoui · Derk Jan Eppink · Mathieu Grosch · Philippe Lamberts · Jean-Claude Marcourt · Louis Michel · Annemie Neyts-Uyttebroeck · Frédérique Ries · Bart Staes · Dirk Sterckx · Marianne Thyssen · Kathleen Van Brempt · Frank Vanhecke · Guy Verhofstadt