Do we like them?

Do we like Alexander De Croo?

Our score: 7 out of 10. Strong on LGBTQ+ rights and development, with one messy budget row and a Gaza stance that splits opinion.

Alexander De Croo is a Belgian liberal who ran the country as prime minister from 2020 until February 2025, when he handed over after his party took a hiding at the 2024 election. He announced he was stepping down the night of that defeat, which is more than some leaders manage. Since December 2025 he has been the United Nations Development Programme's Administrator.

His rough patch came in December 2022. After his budget secretary Eva De Bleeker resigned over a botched budget, opposition parties alleged that he had signed off on it and then told parliament otherwise, and they pushed for answers. He rejected the claim and hit back at the accusation. We couldn't open the full reporting to check the finer detail, so treat it as a political fight rather than a proven wrong.

On the harm check, he comes out clean. In March 2021 he gave a speech urging Belgians to fight intolerance and said everyone should be free to love who they want, and when he formed his government in 2020 it included Petra De Sutter, Europe's first trans deputy prime minister. We found no harmful words from him about LGBTQ+ people, women, migrants or the planet, and no shady company.

The contested bit is Gaza. After he visited the Rafah crossing in November 2023 and called for international humanitarian law to be respected, Israel summoned Belgium's ambassador and accused him of backing terrorism. Where you land depends on whether you read that as a leader defending civilians or as a leader taking sides. His own words didn't read as hateful to us.

The recent chapter is the UN job. He started at UNDP on 2 December 2025, and in March 2026 made his first visit as Administrator to Jamaica, to see communities hit by Hurricane Melissa. Nothing new has come up on him lately beyond that work, which is mostly good news.

So the verdict: he is the sort of steady, unflashy politician you'd happily see running a development agency. He's not a firebrand or a saint, and the budget row keeps him off the top shelf, but nothing we found in his words or his company would make you wince.