Wilmès II Government

The Wilmès II Government was a minority Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Minister Sophie Wilmès, the first female Prime Minister of Belgium.

Wilmès II Government
97th Cabinet of Belgium (since 1830)
Date formed	17 March 2020
Date dissolved	1 October 2020
People and organisations
Head of state	Philippe of Belgium
Head of government	Sophie Wilmès
No. of ministers	12
Member parties	MR (Francophone) CD&V (Flemish) Open Vld (Flemish)
Status in legislature	Caretaker minority coalition (with emergency plenary powers) 38 / 150
Opposition parties	Groen (Flemish) sp.a (Flemish) N-VA (Flemish) VB (Flemish) cdH (Francophone) DéFI (Francophone) Ecolo (Francophone) PS (Francophone) PVDA-PTB
History
Election	2019 Belgian federal election
Legislature term	2019–2024
Predecessor	Wilmès I
Successor	De Croo

Coalition. Striped parties are not part of the government but supporting it from the opposition.

Wilmès had been selected as a caretaker prime minister following the 2019 Belgian federal election, and headed the Wilmès I Government, a minority government with the same party composition as the previous Michel II Government, from 27 October 2019.

On 17 March 2020, the opposition parties sp.a, PS, Groen, Ecolo, cdH and DéFI agreed to give Wilmès the plenary powers needed to deal with the coronavirus outbreak in Belgium, for a period of three months.^[1] This was later extended until mid-September 2020, and then 1 October 2020, to allow completion of the 2019–20 Belgian government formation. Upon the end of the process, the Wilmès II Government was replaced by the De Croo Government.^[2]

Composition

The composition of the government was identical to that of the last composition of Wilmès I Government.

Portfolio	Minister	Took office	Left office	Party
Prime Minister
Prime Minister	Sophie Wilmès	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Deputy Prime Ministers
Minister of Justice and Director of Buildings	Koen Geens	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		CD&V
Minister of Budget, Civil Service, National Lottery and Scientific Policy	David Clarinval	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Minister of Development Cooperation, Finance and fighting Fiscal Fraud	Alexander De Croo	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		Open Vld
Minister
Minister of Administrative Simplification, Digital Agenda, Postal Services and Telecom	Philippe De Backer	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		Open Vld
Minister of the Interior and Safety	Pieter De Crem	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		CD&V
Minister of Asylum, Migration, Health and Social Affairs	Maggie De Block	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		Open Vld
Minister of Consumer Affairs, Disabled Persons, Economy, Employment, Equal Rights and Fighting Poverty	Nathalie Muylle [nl]	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		CD&V
Minister of the Middle Class, SMEs, Self-employed, Agriculture, Social Integration and Urban Policy	Denis Ducarme	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Minister of Pensions	Daniel Bacquelaine	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Minister of Mobility and the National Railway Company	François Bellot	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Minister of Foreign Affairs, Defence and European Affairs	Philippe Goffin	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR
Minister of Energy, Environment and Sustainable Development	Marie-Christine Marghem	17 March 2020	1 October 2020		MR

References

1. VRT NWS (2020-03-16). "Premier Sophie Wilmès (MR) vraagt morgen het vertrouwen in de Kamer". vrtnws.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-03-17.
2. VRT NWS (2020-09-30). "7 partijen hebben een inhoudelijk akkoord om samen te regeren: dit weten we daar al over" [7 parties have an internal agreement to govern: this is what we know already]. vrtnws.be (in Dutch). Retrieved 2020-09-30.