Bart De Wever

Early life and family

Bart Albert Liliane De Wever was born on 21 December 1970 in Mortsel and grew up in Kontich, where his parents Irene and Henri owned a small supermarket. His father had previously worked for a Belgian railway company and was briefly active in the Vlaamse Militanten Orde before becoming a local administrator for the Volksunie. De Wever's older brother is historian and professor Bruno De Wever, who teaches at Ghent University. His grandfather had been the secretary of the Flemish National Union, a Flemish far-right party from the interwar period that had been recognised as the ruling party of Flanders during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. However, during an interview, Bart De Wever nuanced his grandfather's past by claiming he had not collaborated with the Nazis.

Education

De Wever began studying a law degree at the University of Antwerp, but dropped out before switching to study history at Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp and then the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), graduating with a licentiate (equivalent of the master's degree). As a student he was a member of the classical liberal Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, Liberal Flemish Students' Union) and the conservative Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV, Catholic Flemish Students' Union) of Antwerp and Leuven. He is a former editor-in-chief of the KVHV newspapers Tegenstroom (magazine of KVHV in Antwerp) and Ons Leven (in Leuven). After graduating, he was employed as a research assistant working on the Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging (New Encyclopedia of the Flemish Movement), as well as publishing a magazine article on the influence of Joris Van Severen.

Academic and Media Commentary

Writing for the Centre for Political Studies in Brussels in 2010, scholar on Belgian politics Regis Dantoy assessed that De Wever politically positions himself "very ambiguously" between a charismatic populist and a mainstream image as a "popular figure who flirts with populism" in order to attract a wider degree of support. In an interview with Der Spiegel De Wever described himself as opposed to forms of extreme far-right and far-left politics, arguing "I'm conservative by nature and I don't like adventures." Professor of digital media and politics Ico Maly has argued that De Wever's political communication consists of the following ideological components: Flemish nationalism, neoconservatism, counter-enlightenment and cultural homogeny. Philosopher Philippe Van Parijs described him as a civic nationalist instead of an ethnic nationalist, and also questioned if De Wever could still be described as a separatist.

Assessing De Wever's ideological views, philosopher Jason Stanley has opined that he is "a master of polite xenophobia" whereas Belgian political scientist Carl Devos argues that De Wever is not xenophobic or populist but takes a firm stance on immigration and asylum policy.

De Wever is married to a Dutch national, Veerle Hegge, with whom he has four children. They live together in Deurne. In 2012, De Wever undertook a crash diet and lost 60 kilos. His physical transformation was noted by the Belgian media and he subsequently published a book advising on weight loss. De Wever has cited marathon running as his main interest outside of politics. In addition to Dutch, De Wever speaks French, English and German.

In August 2025, De Wever adopted a Scottish Fold cat, which he named Maximus Textoris Pulcher and announced as an official resident of the prime minister's office at Rue de la Loi 16. Maximus has a popular account on Instagram.

Origins

De Wever initially started his political career as a member of the Volksunie (People's Union) party, which his father had belonged to, and was elected as a municipal councilor in Berchem for the party. During the ideological splits in the Volksunie, De Wever became part of the so-called Oranjehofgroep along with Frieda Brepoels, Eric Defoort, Ben Weyts and Geert Bourgeois. The Oranjehofgroup was a political clique within the Volksunie composed of right-wing, conservative-liberal and Flemish nationalist members who opposed the left-orientated direction the party was being taken under Bert Anciaux. The members of the Oranjehofgroep would later found the N-VA together.

Early party leadership

In 2004, he was elected as party leader of the N-VA with 95% of the votes, being the only candidate up for election. Initially, the N-VA had followed the political style of the People's Union by characterizing itself as a big tent party; however, under De Wever's leadership the N-VA took on a conservative identity and has seen a rise in support since. De Wever went through a rough stretch in 2006, when he accepted the conservative-liberal Jean-Marie Dedecker as an N-VA member, causing a split with the CD&V party. In order to reconcile the party, Dedecker had to leave. Although he was extensively criticised, the local N-VA leaders permitted De Wever to remain as N-VA president.

In 2007, a photograph was released of De Wever attending a conference held by the French extreme-right Front National leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1996 at the Flemish National Debate Club in Antwerp. In response to the controversy, De Wever stated "I had just finished my studies and I thought it was a unique opportunity to hear Le Pen, who was at the time a major figure in French politics. I am a legalist, with democratic convictions, but I have an Anglo-Saxon conception of freedom of expression: in a democracy, everyone must be free to express their opinion, even if it is an opinion that I hate. And I always prefer to have information first-hand rather than in a filtered manner." De Wever later criticized Le Pen as a "a showman who had no answers for anything" and said he had no connections to Le Pen's party.

In October 2007, after then Mayor of Antwerp Patrick Janssens issued an apology for the city's collaboration in the deportation of Jews during World War II, Bart De Wever said 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."

After his comments were met with controversy, De Wever issued a personal apology to representatives of Antwerp's Jewish community and in an open letter to De Standaard. Following these events, in an op-ed published in Le Monde, Belgian French-speaking writer Pierre Mertens claimed that Bart De Wever was a "convinced negationist leader". De Wever sued Mertens for this allegation.