Europe Explained – Who is Charles Michel – EU Council president
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Charles Michel (1975) is the prime minister of Belgium. He is the son of Louis Michel, a former European commissioner for development and humanitarian aid. From 2007 until 2010 Michel was the Belgian minister for development aid in four different governments.
One of these governments was headed by prime minister Herman Van Rompuy, who became the first president of the European Council from 2009 until 2014. In 2010 Michel resigned as a minister in order to become president of the Belgian francophone liberal party, Mouvement Reformateur (MR). In this position he negotiated the formation of the Belgian government in 2014. Of this government Michel became prime minister in for Belgium rather extraordinary circumstances.
While the Flemish side of the government consisted of three parties, the MR was the only party on the francophone side.The government eventually collapsed when the largest Flemish party, NVA, left the government in December 2018, when Michel signed the UN Global Compact for Migration, with the support of the two other Flemish parties. The government continued until the elections of May 2019 without a majority in the parliament. Belgian political insiders characterise Michel as not being a visionary, but a dealmaker – a quality you cannot do without if you want to lead a complicated country like Belgium.
