Charles Michel

Michel became the youngest Belgian Prime Minister in 173 years since Jean-Baptiste Nothomb in 1841, and was only the second Francophone liberal to become Prime Minister.

In the Ministry of Security and the Interior, many tasks of the federal police are being privatized (securing public buildings, supervising detainees, etc.), while the departments concerned with international crime (especially computer and financial crime) are being decentralized.

In defence, while the budget for investment in equipment has been increased at the request of NATO, the number of personnel is to be reduced by 19.5 per cent.

Federal cultural and scientific institutions have been hit by budget cuts of 20 per cent.

The budget allocated to the functioning of the judiciary is also depleted, leading Belgium's highest magistrate to accuse the "logic of economy" of being responsible for a "pathology of the entire judicial system that endangers the rule of law."

Charles Michel (born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician serving as the president of the European Council since 2019.

Charles Michel was born in Namur, Wallonia, on 21 December 1975.

He is the son of Louis Michel, a former European Commissioner, and Martine Pierre.

Michel began his political career at the age of 16 when he joined the Young Liberal Reformers of Jodoigne (Jeunes Réformateurs Libéraux de Jodoigne), affiliated to the MR. In 1994, at the age of 18, he was elected provincial councilor in Walloon Brabant.

He graduated in law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and the University of Amsterdam in 1998, after which he became lawyer at the Brussels Bar.

He is fluent in Dutch and English in addition to his native French.

Shortly after finishing university, while his father was Belgium's Minister of Home Affairs, Michel was elected to the federal Chamber of Representatives in 1999 (age 23), representing Walloon Brabant, a stronghold of the liberal MR.

In 2000, he became Minister of Home Affairs in the Walloon Government aged 25, making him the youngest regional minister in Belgian history.

At the same time, his father was minister of Home Affairs at the national level.

At the local level, he was elected city councillor in Wavre in 2000, and in 2006 became mayor of the city.

Michel became the minister of development cooperation in 2007 at age thirty-one, and remained in this position until elected the leader of the Francophone liberal Reformist Movement (MR) in February 2011.

In December 2007, Michel became the Minister of Development Cooperation in the Verhofstadt III Government and subsequently in the Leterme I, Van Rompuy I and Leterme II governments.

After poor results in the 2009 regional elections, Michel was part of a group demanding the MR leader Didier Reynders resign.

After the party suffered further losses in the 2010 federal election, Reynders resigned, and Michel announced his candidacy to replace him.

In January 2011, he was elected President of MR, and resigned from the cabinet.

He previously served as the prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019.

He led MR to the 2014 federal election, where they emerged as the third-largest party in the Chamber of Representatives.

After coalition negotiations, Michel was confirmed as Prime Minister of a MR-N-VA-OVLD-CD&V government.

He was sworn in on 11 October 2014, becoming the youngest Belgian prime minister since Jean-Baptiste Nothomb in 1841.

After the 2014 federal election, Michel became co-formateur in the ensuing coalition negotiations.

Initially, CD&V Leader Kris Peeters was expected to be Prime Minister.

However CD&V also insisted on Marianne Thyssen being appointed as European Commissioner, and Michel's MR refused to allow the two most important political posts to be held by a single party.

Ultimately, the parties agreed to appoint Thyssen as European Commissioner, with an understanding that the prime ministership would go to either MR or OVLD.

As Michel was serving as co-formateur, he quickly won internal support from other parties to lead the next government.

On 7 October 2014, an overall agreement was reached between the four parties to form a new government, with Michel proposed as Prime Minister, and Peeters as one of four Deputy Prime Ministers.

On 1 January 2016 the tax shift began to take effect.

This includes increasing the take-home pay of the lowest income earners through a decrease in social security contributions.

The expected increase is €80 net for an employee earning €1,500; €70 for those earning €2,100; and €60 for those earning €2,800.

Finance Minister Johan Van Overtveldt says "the tax shift will be a tax cut", although the value-added tax on electricity will rise from 6% to the standard rate of 21% and excise duties on alcohol, diesel, tobacco and soft drinks will increase.

In December 2018, the government collapsed following internal disagreements over the handling of the Global Compact for Migration, with the N-VA withdrawing from the cabinet.

Michel subsequently tendered his resignation and remained in office in a caretaker capacity.

At the 2019 federal election shortly afterwards, MR lost a number of seats, although Michel remained in office as interim prime minister during coalition negotiations.

Weeks after the federal election, on 2 July 2019, the European Council voted to appoint Michel as its new president.

He took over from Donald Tusk at a ceremony on 29 November 2019, formally beginning his term on 1 December 2019.

In January 2024, he announced he would step down as president of the European Council to run in the 2024 European Parliament election, before reversing his decision within the same month and declaring he would finish his current mandate.