The Reformist Movement ( , MR) is a liberal French-speaking political party in Belgium, which includes social-liberal and conservative-liberal factions. Stemming from the Belgian Liberal Party founded in 1846, the MR is one of the oldest parties on the European continent.

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. Having a majority on the French-speaking side of the Federal parliament, they joined forces to work on the formation of a new Belgian government.

The MR is an alliance between four liberal parties, three French-speaking and one German-speaking. 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. 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.

Ideology and policies Over the years, the MR has always oscillated between ideological markers closer to conservative liberalism or social liberalism. Its fundamental principles remain however the same through time, such as defending civil liberties, free market, entrepreneurial freedom, and equal opportunities. The MR is generally positioned in the centre-right or right of the political spectrum.

During Georges-Louis Bouchez's tenure as party president, the party is said to have shifted further to the right, with critics of the party even going so far as to say that the positions of some of its members were increasingly moving towards the far-right. Bouchez has for example often publicly pointed out some excesses of the woke movement and he welcomed former members of the far-right Chez Nous party to the MR.

On its current platform, the party advocates higher revenues through lower taxes; time-limited unemployment benefits; life extension of the most recent nuclear reactors; greater investment in police, justice and defense; less government and state neutrality. MR is "belgicain", in favor of Belgian unity and a strong federal state.

Foreign policy The MR is also a strong supporter of the European Union and NATO. It has always defended support, including military aid, for Ukraine since the Russian invasion in 2022. In 2024, the MR was the only party from De Croo Government to be opposed to Belgium recognizing the State of Palestine.

Electoral positioning During the 2019 election campaign, the RePresent research centre — composed of political scientists from five universities (UAntwerpen, KU Leuven, VUB, UCLouvain and ULB) — studied the electoral programmes of Belgium's thirteen main political parties. This study classified the parties on two "left-right" axes, from "-5" (extreme left) to "5" (extreme right): a "classic" socio-economic axis, which refers to state intervention in the economic process and the degree to which the state should ensure social equality, and a socio-cultural axis, which refers to a divide articulated around an identity-based opposition on themes such as immigration, Europe, crime, the environment, emancipation, etc.

The MR then presented a centre-right programme (0.85) on the socio-economic level, and the most centrist (0.4) of the Belgian political spectrum on the socio-cultural level.

The RePresent centre repeated the exercise during the 2024 election campaign for the twelve main parties. The MR's positioning shifted towards the right on the socio-cultural axis (1.35) and especially on the socio-economic axis (3.57), where it became the most right-wing Belgian political party.

Presidents 2002–2003: Daniel Ducarme 2003–2004: Antoine Duquesne 2004–2011: Didier Reynders 2011–2014: Charles Michel 2014–2019: Olivier Chastel 2019: Charles Michel 2019–present: Georges-Louis Bouchez

Representation in EU institutions In the European Parliament, Mouvement Réformateur sits in the Renew Europe group with three MEPs: Sophie Wilmès, Olivier Chastel and Benoit Cassart.

In the European Committee of the Regions, Mouvement Réformateur sits in the Renew Europe CoR group, with two full and three alternate members for the 2025–2030 mandate. Willy Borsus is second vice-president of the Renew Europe CoR Group.

Election results Chamber of Representatives Election Votes % Seats +/- Government 1995 623,250 10.3 1999 630,219 10.1 1 2003 748,954 11.4 6 2007 835,073 12.5 1 2010 605,617 9.3 5 2014 650,260 9.6 2 2019 512,825 7.6 6 2024 716,934 10.3 6

Senate Election Votes % Seats +/- 1995 672,798 11.2 1999 654,961 10.6 0 2003 795,757 12.2 0 2007 815,755 12.3 1 2010 599,618 9.3 2

Regional Brussels Parliament Election Votes % Seats +/- Government Overall 1989 83,011 18.9 (#2) 1995 144,478 35.0 (#1) 13 1999 146,845 40.1 (#1) 34.4 (#1) 1 2004 127,122 32.5 (#2) 28.0 (#2) 2 2009 121,905 29.8 (#1) 26.5 (#1) 1 2014 94,227 23.0 (#2) 20.4 (#2) 6 2019 65,502 16.9 (#3) 14.3 (#3) 5 2024 101,157 26.0 (#1) 7

Walloon Parliament Election Votes % Seats +/- Government 1995 447,542 23.7 (#2) 1999 470,454 24.7 (#2) 2 2004 478,999 24.3 (#2) 1 2009 469,792 23.1 (#2) 1 2014 546,363 26.7 (#2) 6 2019 435,878 21.4 (#2) 5 2024 612.010 29.1 (#1) 6

European Parliament Election List leader Votes % Seats +/- EP Group Overall 1979 André Damseaux 372,904 17.76 (#4) 6.85 New LD 1984 Daniel Ducarme 540,610 24.14 (#2) 9.45 1 LDR 1989 François-Xavier de Donnea 423,479 18.90 (#2) 7.18 1 1994 Jean Gol 541,724 24.25 (#2) 9.08 0 ELDR 1999 Daniel Ducarme 624,445 26.99 (#1) 10.03 0 2004 Louis Michel 671,422 27.58 (#2) 10.35 1 ALDE 2009 640,092 26.05 (#2) 9.74 1 2014 661,332 27.10 (#2) 9.88 1 2019 Olivier Chastel 470,654 19.29 (#3) 7.06 1 RE 2024 Sophie Wilmès 900,413 34.88 (#1) 12.62 1

Notable figures Sophie Wilmès Charles Michel Didier Reynders Louis Michel Pierre-Yves Jeholet Willy Borsus Christine Defraigne Daniel Ducarme Antoine Duquesne Jean Gol Sabine Laruelle Jacques Simonet Gérard Deprez

See also Liberalism Liberalism in Belgium Contributions to liberal theory Liberalism worldwide Liberal Archive

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