Reformist Movement

For the political alliance in France, see Reformist Movement (France).
Reformist Movement
Mouvement réformateur
AbbreviationMR
PresidentGeorges-Louis Bouchez
Founded24 March 2002; 22 years ago (2002-03-24)
Merger of
HeadquartersNational Secretariat
Avenue de la Toison D'Or 84-86
1060
Brussels, Belgium
Think tankCentre Jean Gol
Student wingFédération des Étudiants Libéraux
Youth wingJeunes MR
Ideology
Political positionCentre-right
Regional affiliationLiberal Group[1]
European affiliationAlliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe
European Parliament groupRenew Europe
International affiliationLiberal International
Flemish counterpartOpen VLD
German-speaking counterpartParty for Freedom and Progress
Colours  Blue
SloganL’Avenir s’éclaire
('The Future is Brighter')
Chamber of Representatives
(French-speaking seats)
20 / 60
Senate
(French-speaking seats)
8 / 24
Walloon Parliament
20 / 75
Parliament of the French Community
32 / 94
Parliament of the German-speaking Community
3 / 25
Brussels Parliament
(French-speaking seats)
18 / 72
European Parliament
(French-speaking seats)
3 / 8
Benelux Parliament
3 / 22
Website
www.mr.be

The Reformist Movement[2][3] (French: Mouvement réformateur, pronounced [muvmɑ̃ ʁefɔʁmatœʁ], MR) is a liberal[4][5][6] French-speaking political party in Belgium, which includes social-liberal[7][8][9] and conservative-liberal factions.[10][11] Stemming from the Belgian Liberal Party founded in 1846, the MR is one of the oldest parties on the European continent.[12]

Since October 2014, the party has provided two prime ministers: Charles Michel and Sophie Wilmès. It has been a member of every federal government since the 2000s. At the federated entities level, the MR was in charge of Wallonia from 2017 to 2019 with Willy Borsus as Minister-President of Wallonia. It is currently in charge of the French community with Pierre-Yves Jeholet as Minister-President of the French community.

The MR emerged victorious from the 2024 elections, becoming the leading French-speaking party. In Wallonia, the party came out on top with 29.6% of the vote. In Brussels, the MR also placed first, with 25.9% of the vote. Just a few days after the elections, the MR announced it would work closely with Les Engagés to quickly form governments in the Walloon Region and the French community.[13] Having a majority on the French-speaking side of the Federal parliament, they joined forces to work on the formation of a new Belgian governement.[14]

The MR is an alliance between three French-speaking and one German-speaking liberal parties. The Liberal Reformist Party (PRL) and the Francophone Democratic Federalists (FDF) started the alliance in 1993, and were joined in 1998 by the Citizens' Movement for Change (MCC). The alliance was then known as the PRL-FDF-MCC federation. The alliance became the MR during a congress in 2002, where the German-speaking liberal party, the Party for Freedom and Progress joined as well.[15] The label PRL is no longer used, and the three other parties still use their own names. The MR is a member of Liberal International and the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe (ALDE) Party. However, on 25 September 2011, the FDF decided to leave the coalition. They did not agree with the manner in which president Charles Michel defended the rights of the French-speaking people in the agreement concerning the splitting of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde district, during the 2010–11 Belgian government formation.[16]

  1. ^ "Politieke fracties". Benelux Parliament (in Dutch). Retrieved 8 August 2023.
  2. ^ Walsh, David (2 October 2020). "Belgium: New seven-party coalition government officially sworn in". Euronews. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  3. ^ Birnbaum, Michael (20 December 2019). "Without a government for a year, Belgium shows what happens to politics without politicians". The Washington Post. Retrieved 4 January 2021.
  4. ^ Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Wallonia/Belgium". Parties and Elections in Europe.
  5. ^ Almeida, Dimitri. "Liberal Parties and European Integration" (PDF).
  6. ^ Colin Hay; Anand Menon (18 January 2007). European Politics. Oxford University Press. p. 92. ISBN 978-0-19-928428-3.
  7. ^ Chardon, Frédéric. "Des libéraux veulent créer un courant progressiste au MR: avec Christine Defraigne à leur tête?". La Libre.be (in French). Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  8. ^ "RLP, le nouveau «Rassemblement des libéraux progressistes» au sein du MR". Le Soir (in French). 2019-11-26. Retrieved 2022-01-02.
  9. ^ Dimitri Almeida (2012). The Impact of European Integration on Political Parties: Beyond the Permissive Consensus. Routledge. p. 107. ISBN 978-0-415-69374-5.
  10. ^ Hans Slomp (30 September 2011). Europe, A Political Profile: An American Companion to European Politics. ABC-CLIO. p. 465. ISBN 978-0-313-39182-8. Retrieved 23 August 2012.
  11. ^ Peter Starke; Alexandra Kaasch; Franca Van Hooren (7 May 2013). The Welfare State as Crisis Manager: Explaining the Diversity of Policy Responses to Economic Crisis. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 192. ISBN 978-1-137-31484-0.
  12. ^ "MR and Open VLD celebrate 175 years of liberalism". ALDE Party. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  13. ^ Times, The Brussels. "'A collaboration, not a fusion': MR and Les Engagés will work together in all governments". www.brusselstimes.com. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  14. ^ Times, The Brussels. "What's the latest on Belgium's Federal Government formation?". www.brusselstimes.com. Retrieved 2024-07-12.
  15. ^ "Le Mouvement Réformateur: Statuts" (PDF) (in French). The Reformist Movement. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2007-09-28. Retrieved 2007-07-08.
  16. ^ "FDF almost unanimously votes in favour of split with MR" (in Dutch). deredactie.be. 25 September 2011. Retrieved 2011-09-25.