Alexander De Croo | |
|---|---|
.jpg) De Croo in 2024 | |
| Prime Minister of Belgium | |
| In office 1 October 2020 – 3 February 2025 | |
| Monarch | Philippe |
| Deputy | |
| Preceded by | Sophie Wilmès |
| Succeeded by | Bart De Wever |
| Minister of Finance | |
| In office 9 December 2018 – 1 October 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles Michel Sophie Wilmès |
| Preceded by | Johan Van Overtveldt |
| Succeeded by | Vincent Van Peteghem |
| Minister of Development Cooperation | |
| In office 11 October 2014 – 1 October 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles Michel Sophie Wilmès |
| Preceded by | Jean-Pascal Labille [fr] |
| Succeeded by | Meryame Kitir |
| Minister for the Digital Agenda, Telecommunications and Postal service | |
| In office 11 October 2014 – 9 December 2018 | |
| Prime Minister | Charles Michel |
| Preceded by | None |
| Succeeded by | Philippe De Backer |
| Minister of Pensions | |
| In office 22 October 2012 – 11 October 2014 | |
| Prime Minister | Elio Di Rupo |
| Preceded by | Vincent Van Quickenborne |
| Succeeded by | Daniel Bacquelaine |
| Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium | |
| In office 22 October 2012 – 1 October 2020 | |
| Prime Minister | Elio Di Rupo Charles Michel Sophie Wilmès |
| Preceded by | Vincent Van Quickenborne |
| Succeeded by | Vincent Van Quickenborne |
| Leader of theOpen Flemish Liberals and Democrats | |
| In office 12 December 2009 – 22 October 2012 | |
| Deputy | Vincent Van Quickenborne Patricia Ceysens [nl] |
| Preceded by | Guy Verhofstadt (acting) |
| Succeeded by | Guy Verhofstadt (acting) |
| Vice President ofOpen VLD | |
| Assumed office 24 August 2024 | |
| President | Eva De Bleeker |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1975-11-03)3 November 1975 (age 50) |
| Political party | Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats |
| Spouse | Annik Penders |
| Children | 2 |
| Education | Vrije Universiteit Brussel (MSc) Northwestern University (MBA) |
| Website | www |
Alexander De Croo (Dutch:[aːlɛkˈsɑndərdəˈkroː]; born 3 November 1975) is a Belgian politician and businessman who served asPrime Minister of Belgium from 2020 to 2025. Previously from 2012 to 2020, De Croo served asdeputy prime minister in the governments ofElio Di Rupo,Charles Michel, andSophie Wilmès. During his tenure as deputy prime minister he served as the Minister of Pensions from 2012 to 2014, asMinister of Development Cooperation from 2014 to 2020, and asMinister of Finance from 2018 to 2020. On 1 October 2020, over a year after the2019 federal elections, theDe Croo Government was formed to replaceWilmès' minority government, with De Croo as prime minister.
De Croo was born inVilvoorde and studiedbusiness engineering at theVrije Universiteit Brussel before attaining anMBA atNorthwestern University in the United States. He worked forBoston Consulting Group before starting his own company, Darts-ip, in 2006. De Croo became involved with the Belgian political partyOpen Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (Open VLD), of which he was chairman from 2009 to 2012.
After the2024 Belgian federal election, De Croo andhis party suffered a major electoral defeat. De Croo announced his resignation on 9 June 2024. De Croo remained ascaretaker prime minister until thenew government was formed on 3 February 2025, being succeeded byBart De Wever, leader of theN-VA.[1][2][3]
Alexander De Croo was born on 3 November 1975 inVilvoorde inFlemish Brabant, Belgium,[4] and was one of two children of the politician andMinister of StateHerman De Croo and his wife Françoise Desguin.[5]In 1993, he attended theVrije Universiteit Brussel where he graduated in 1998 in Business Engineering. He attendedNorthwestern University inEvanston, Illinois, in 2002, and completed anMBA at theKellogg School of Management in 2004. Prior to his political career, De Croo became a project leader atBoston Consulting Group in 1999. In 2006 he founded a new company called Darts-ip that specialized in providing services to intellectual property professionals.[6]
In 2009, De Croo participated for the first time in politics, standing in the2009 European elections. He received more than 47,000 votes.[7] On 26 October, De Croo became a candidate for thepresidency of his political party,Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD), to succeed the transitional party president,Guy Verhofstadt. He choseVincent Van Quickenborne and Patricia Ceysens as his running mates to compete againstMarino Keulen andGwendolyn Rutten. On 12 December, he was elected president in the second round with 11,676 votes; Marino Keulen received 9,614 votes.[8] His election was considered remarkable as he had almost no previous experience as a politician.[9][10]
Five months after being elected party leader, De Croo threatened to withdraw the Open VLD from the governing coalition if there was no solution to the constitutional dispute in theBrussels-Halle-Vilvoorde voting issue. After Open VLD's deadline passed the party left the government and thenPrime MinisterYves Leterme announced the government's resignation. This was accepted by KingAlbert II on 26 April 2010.[11] During theelections for the Senate in 2010, De Croo obtained more than 301,000 votes, the third most in the Dutch-speaking constituency[7] and served as a senator until 22 October 2012.[12]
De Croo succeeded Van Quickenborne in theDi Rupo Government as deputy prime minister and Minister of Pensions on 22 October 2012[13] after Van Quickenborne resigned to become mayor ofKortrijk.[14] In December Gwendolyn Rutten was elected as the new chairwoman of Open VLD.[15]
After the2014 Belgian federal election and itsFederal Government formation, it was decided that he would remain deputy prime minister in the newly formedMichel I Government. De Croo also became Minister of Development Cooperation, Digital Agenda, Telecom and Postal Services[16][17] whileDaniel Bacquelaine took over from him as Minister of Pensions.[17] This government took office on 11 October 2014.[18]
During De Croo's time in office, Belgium became the first country to suspendofficial development assistance toBurundi after the beginning ofviolent unrest in the African country from 2015.[19] In 2017, De Croo pledged €25 million ($26.81 million) through 2025 to eradicateAfrican sleeping sickness.[20] He also was one of the founders of the She Decides movement, a reaction against the re-installation of theMexico City Policy by PresidentDonald Trump.[21]
After a disagreement within the government over the UNGlobal Compact for Migration, theN-VA left the governing coalition, causing the administration to become a minority government on 9 December 2018, known asMichel II.[22] De Croo became Minister of Finance, replacingJohan Van Overtveldt.[23]
In December 2018, De Croo took the stage during theGlobal Citizen Festival Mandela 100 concert inJohannesburg,South Africa. It was the final event of the international campaign #SheIsEqual for women's rights which attracted €780 million in commitments.[24]
Under thecaretaker administration of Prime MinisterSophie Wilmès, he oversaw a financial stimulus package to tackle theCOVID-19 crisis and a deal to saveBrussels Airlines in 2020.[25] He was elected joint deputy chairman of Open VLD, together withEgbert Lachaert.[26]
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On 23 September 2020, Alexander De Croo andPaul Magnette (PS) were appointed by the King to form a government as a so-called "Vivaldi coalition".[27] On 30 September 2020, it was announced that De Croo would take over the position of prime minister, succeeding Wilmès.[28] De Croo's government has a higher proportion of women ministers than any previous Belgian government: half of the ministers are women.[29]
The formation of the Belgian government took a considerable amount of time. The bookDe doodgravers van België byWouter Verschelden [nl] states that the main reason for the prolonged negotiations was a scandal about communication between De Croo and an Italian pornographic film actress.[30][31] In August 2021,Corriere della Sera quoted statements by the implicated actress, claiming that De Croo had messaged her seeking a meeting and that they had not met, but had continued to exchange messages.[32]
In June 2021, he visited the site of theAntwerp building collapse with KingPhilippe of Belgium and spoke to emergency workers.[33]
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In February 2022, the government adopted a law to make the labour market more flexible: employees have the option, provided that their company agrees, of switching to a four-day week. In return, their working days would be extended to 9.5 hours (corresponding to a 38-hour week). The law also makes working hours between 8 p.m. and midnight more flexible, as they are no longer considered as night work and do not give employees entitlement to any compensation.[34]
The government wants to increasemilitary spending to 2 per cent of GDP in order to comply with the demands ofNATO and the U.S. government, which is causing tension within its coalition. The right-wing supports the plan, but the ecologists are opposed, arguing that the government should have other priorities than the military, while the socialists remain undecided.[35]
On 26 November 2022, De Croo and foreign ministerHadja Lahbib visited Ukraine, meeting Ukrainian presidentVolodymyr Zelenskyy and pledging continued Belgian support to Ukraine.[36]
In November 2023, De Croo called the Israeli bombing campaign in theGaza Strip "disproportionate", but said that "Belgium will not take sides" in theGaza war.[37] The Israeli government accused him of "supporting terrorism".[38]
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On 26 February 2024 DeCroo travelled to Paris, whereEmmanuel Macron was holding an emergency summit over the situation inUkraine, as they had just suffered the loss ofAvdiivka. Czech PMPetr Fiala proposed the purchase of 500,000 rounds of artillery ammunition forVolodymyr Zelensky's forces. This was the second time in one month the Czech government had aired the matter. The French had previously vetoed the idea to obtain the ammunition from foreign sources.[39] The Dutch government ofMark Rutte announced, through him on that day in Paris, that it would provide €100 million for this purpose, and De Croo announced that his government would provide €200 million. Fiala managed to attract 15 nations to his cause. The prime minister ofPortugal,Antonio Costa, said that the group defence ministers had been tasked with a 7 March deadline to formulate and execute the plan.[40][41][42]
Following the release of the2024 Belgian federal election results, De Croo and his party suffered a major electoral defeat. De Croo, following protocol, announced his resignation as prime minister effective on 10 June. After this, he remained ascaretaker prime minister until the formation of a new federal government.[43][1]
In September 2024, during their welcome addresses forPope Francis on his visit to the country, De Croo, along withKing Philippe, publicly criticised theCatholic Church over sexual abuses committed by clergy in Belgium.[44] On his return flight to Rome, Francis said "abortion is murder" and that "science says that just one month from conception, all the organs are present". He compared the abortion doctors to hitmen. Contemporaneously, Belgium has considered whether to expand access to abortion from the first 12 weeks to 18 weeks. De Croo said he would summon the Belgian apostolic nuncio,Franco Coppola, so as to protest the pope's remarks as an “unacceptable” interference in his country’s domestic affairs.[45]
On 3 February 2025, De Croo was succeeded as prime minister by Bart De Wever, leader of the N-VA and mayor of Antwerp.
Like the majority of party leaders in Belgium, De Croo is in favour of greater limits on the political power of the Belgian monarch. He is of the opinion that the monarch's power should be ceremonial, similar to that of other Western European monarchs.[46]
De Croo is married to Annik Penders and they have two children.[47] He is a keenequestrian and takes part in a formal event each year together with his father; in 2010 he broke a foot and an elbow when he fell from his horse.[48] He is fluent in Dutch and English, as well as French, thenative language of his mother.[49]
Netherlands: Grand Cross of theOrder of Orange-Nassau (2023)[56]
Luxembourg: Grand Cross of theOrder of Merit of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg (2024)[57]
Ukraine: First Class of theOrder of Prince Yaroslav the Wise (26 August 2024)[58]
Media related toAlexander De Croo at Wikimedia Commons
Quotations related toAlexander De Croo at Wikiquote| Political offices | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Deputy Prime Minister of Belgium 2012–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Minister of Pensions 2012–2014 | Succeeded by | |
| Preceded by | Minister of Development Cooperation 2014-2020 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Minister of Finance 2018–2020 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Prime Minister of Belgium 2020–2025 | Succeeded by |
| Academic offices | ||
| Preceded by | Invocation Speaker of theCollege of Europe 2021 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| Other | |
