In the municipal elections of October 2018, the N-VA held on to its 23 seats in Antwerp, with Bart De Wever, the outgoing mayor, receiving 76,702 preferential votes. Although the party could have continued its centre-right majority with CD&V and Open Vld, it was left with just one seat remaining. As a result, De Wever formed a 'Burgundian coalition' with N-VA, Open Vld, and sp.a, and was reappointed as mayor of the city for a second term in January 2019.
Elections in 2024
In the elections of June 9, 2024, De Wever was federal party leader for the N-VA and as such was re-elected to the Chamber of Representatives, with a score of 255,446 preference votes. After the federal and regional elections, N-VA unexpectedly remained the largest party in Flanders, after Vlaams Belang had been in the lead in the polls for a long time.
Before the elections, De Wever, who was explicitly a candidate for prime minister, had ruled out a coalition with the party in order to prioritize a community deal with the PS and the formation of a socio-economic recovery government to protect Flemish prosperity, which according to him, the outgoing Vivaldi government had done too little.Not only did De Wever, as an informateur, again have the right of initiative to form the Flemish government, but as a federal informateur he was also allowed to initiate the formation at that level. After nine days, De Wever handed over leadership of the Flemish negotiations to his party colleague Matthias Diependaele, who eventually formed a government with CD&V and Vooruit, after which he fully focused on the federal formation.
Due to the defeat of the PS in the federal elections and its choice for the opposition, there was no longer any question of a major community deal and De Wever focused on forming a socio-economic recovery government with CD&V and Vooruit on the Flemish side and MR and Les Engagés on the French-speaking side. After De Wever submitted an informateur memorandum to his intended coalition partners, he was promoted to preformateur on June 26, 2024. On July 10, 2024, King Filip appointed De Wever as formateur with the task of forming a federal government.
