Reformist Liberal Party - Definition and Overview

The Mouvement Réformateur (MR) is a Belgian French-speaking liberal party, favoring a united Belgium. Part of governing coalition in Federal State, in Walloon Region (untill the mid-2004 elections) and in Brussels-Capital Region. Made small gains in the 2003 elections. It is a new name for the merger between the former groups: PRL-FDF-MCC. The MR is member of Liberal International and the European Liberal Democrat and Reform Party.

The ideology of the MR is a mix of free-market liberalism, recently becoming more and more left-leaning liberalism, while at the same time condoning massive state interventionism (French-speaking Belgium has around 70% more civil servants per 1000 inhabitants then EU-average), opposing any fiscal, financial autonomy for the regional and community governements in Belgium. This is especially the case since the former 'PRL' joined forces with the strongly nationalistic FDF to become the 'MR'.

In the 2003 and 2004 elections, the MR did rather poor, partly because many of its historic voters resented the official party line approving easy acquisition of voting rights for Belgian elections by immigrants. In 2003, the electoral law was changed with MR support, and immigrants obtained voting rights (and +/- full political rights) without having to assume full civil responsibilities and obligations (as tax obligations and the requirement to respect the universal civil rights and freedoms of every human, including equal rights for men and women, and the secuar state).

Notable figures

• Antoine Duquesne
• Charles Michel
• Louis Michel
• Didier Reynders

See also

• List of political parties in Belgium
• Timeline of liberal parties in Belgium
• Politics of Belgium

External link

• Official web site (http://www.mr.be)