Belgium has a new prime minister whose political purpose was long to break up the nation, gut the state structures and give ever more autonomy to his northern Flanders at the cost of everyone else.

Once an advocate of separation from French-speaking Wallonia, Bart De Wever, the president of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), has become the head of the federal government.

Conservative Bart De Wever was sworn in Monday as Belgium's new prime minister after seven months of tortuous negotiations to reach a coalition deal that shifts the country to the right. De Wever