The leader of the Flemish liberal party Open VLD Eva De Bleeker is to resign. Ms De Bleeker only took over the leader of the party less than a year ago. She was given the task of getting the party back on track after last year’s disastrous election results for Open VLD. However, the party continues to fare badly in the polls and speculation about how long she could continue as leader has been rife.
In 2020 Eva De Bleeker became Secretary of State with responsibility for the budget and consumer affairs in the Federal Government led by her party colleague Alexander De Croo. Prior to that she was relatively unknown outside her home municipality, Hoeilaart in Flemish Brabant, where she is an Alderman.
Just 3 months after joining the Federal Government a message posted on what then was still called Twitter caused a political storm. Members of her communication team published confidential information regarding the price the Belgian authorities were to pay for coronavirus vaccins they had ordered.
Eva De Bleeker likes to portray herself as an ‘Iron Lady’ when it comes to budgetary discipline. However, it was the budget that proved to be her undoing. In 2022 it emerged that the budget deficit was 1.5 billion euro larger than had been previously stated. The then Prime Minister Alexander De Croo demanded that she correct her mistake.
The opposition smelled blood and the Prime Minster suffered a loss of face. Ms De Bleeker's position became untenable, especially once the opposition found discrepancies in the revised budget figures she had given to MPs. She came under increasing pressure from her own party and had no option other than to resign.
A new broom
After last year’s disastrous results at the federal, regional and European elections, Eva De Bleeker made her comeback to national politics as the new leader of Open VLD. She was tasked with renewing the internal working of the party and devising a new policies that would woo Flemings back to the liberal fold. Her resignation as Secretary of State enabled her to be labelled “anti-establishment” as it was non other than the Prime Minister, fellow Flemish liberal Alexander, that had “shown her the door”.
As leader she opted for a more right-wing liberal path and she wanted the party rank and file to help her achieve this.
At the local elections last October Open VLD suffered another electoral blow. The party suffered losses across the region, included in the “blue bastion” of East Flanders. On top of this poll after poll has shown that Eva De Bleeker has been unable to halt the downward spiral.
Her attempts to renew the party haven’t run smoothly either. Initially a party congress at which a new name was to have been chosen was to have been held on 13 September. However, this is now to be “a festival of ideas” and the party won’t choose a new name until sometime next year.
One of the names that is being mentioned as a possible successor as party leader is Frédéric De Gucht.