Do we like Bart De Wever?
Our score: 4 out of 10. A hardline migration stance and a push to loosen anti-racism law sit against a record with no anti-LGBTQ+ words found and little in the way of public good works.
De Wever is Belgium's Prime Minister and a Flemish nationalist politician from the N-VA. Before that he was mayor of Antwerp and N-VA president, and he is the bloke who built that party into a major force. Late last year VTM Nieuws and Het Laatste Nieuws named him Belgian of the Year, so he is not short of fans at home.
The old stoush that still follows him is from 2015. A Moroccan human rights association lodged a complaint over TV remarks in which he linked radicalisation to the Berber community and said the wrong sort of migrants had been let in en masse. Antwerp prosecutors dismissed it, and he said that only confirmed that explaining facts is not an offence. The Rainbow House, a Brussels LGBT group, didn't buy it and urged the N-VA to reflect on its values.
On the harm check, his own words are mostly about borders and speech. In March 2026 he said the laws and conventions, including the Geneva Convention, have to change, and he also said he is not anti-migration. In May he backed a parliamentary review of the 1981 anti-racism law, saying words should be fought with words, not courts. Çavaria, the Flemish LGBTI+ group, welcomed his government's steps on trans care and PrEP but warned its asylum plans and equality-body cuts could hurt vulnerable people. We found no anti-LGBTQ+ statements from him.
The Russia stoush is the other recent one. In a March interview he said Europe should normalise relations with Russia and regain cheap energy once the war ends, and also said Russia must never be rewarded for its invasion. His coalition partners called it naive, and critics accused him of being a pro-Russian asset. He said he does not want to curry favour with Russia and that normalisation could only follow an acceptable peace deal.
He also stood up to a bigger player. When the US ambassador publicly attacked Belgian politicians and urged Belgium to drop a case against three mohels, De Wever said an ambassador's job is not to disrupt national politics. He said the approach was not the way allies treat each other, and left the formal response to the foreign minister.
The budget is his current headache. Unions struck on consecutive days in October against planned cuts, and he said painful measures were needed now to avoid a debt and interest-cost spiral. Where you land depends on whether you read the cuts as reckless austerity or as necessary repair, and that is a policy fight rather than a character one.