The Leterme II Government was the

federal government A federation (also called a federal state) is an entity characterized by a political union, union of partially federated state, self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a #Federal governments, federal government (federalism) ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

from 25 November 2009 to 26 April 2010, and the

caretaker government A caretaker government, also known as a caretaker regime, is a temporary ''ad hoc'' government that performs some governmental duties and functions in a country until a regular government is elected or formed. Depending on specific practice, it co ...

until 6 December 2011. It took office when the Flemish Christian Democrat

Yves Leterme Yves Camille Désiré Leterme (; born 6 October 1960) is a Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). He was the prime minister of Belgium from March 2008 to December 2008, and later from November 2009 ...

( CD&V) was sworn in as

Prime Minister A prime minister or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. A prime minister is not the head of state, but r ...

. It followed the Van Rompuy I Government which ended when Herman Van Rompuy became the first

President of the European Council The president of the European Council is the person presiding over and driving forward the work of the European Council on the world stage. This Institutions of the European Union, institution comprises the college of heads of state or governme ...

. It comprised five parties: the Dutch-speaking

Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian Democratic and Flemish (, ; CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...

(CD&V), the Dutch-speaking

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (, , Open Vld) is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal ...

(Open VLD), the French-speaking liberal

Reformist Movement 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 par ...

(MR), the French-speaking

Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...

(PS) and the French-speaking

Humanist Democratic Centre Humanist Democratic Centre (, CDH) was a Christian democratic and centrist French Community of Belgium, French-speaking Political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian So ...

(CDH).

Composition

The Leterme II Government originally comprised 15 ministers, seven secretaries of state, and a government commissary.

Changes in composition

On 14 February 2011,

Charles Michel Charles Michel (; born 21 December 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the president of the European Council from 2019 to 2024. He previously served as the Prime Minister of Belgium, prime minister of Belgium between 2014 and 2019. Miche ...

resigned as minister of Development Cooperation to become Chairman of the MR. He was replaced as minister in the Leterme II

by secretary of state for European Affairs Olivier Chastel, who became minister of Development Cooperation and European Affairs. Chastel was not replaced as secretary of state.

Crisis

From the start of the Leterme I Government, the problem of the electoral district of

Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (; ) is a judicial arrondissement encompassing the bilingual— French and Dutch—Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides with the administrative arrondissement of Brussels-Capital and the surrounding Dutch-speaking ...

caused problems between the coalition partners. The Constitutional Court of Belgium had judged in 2003 that the rules applying to the electoral district violated the non-discrimination principle. When no solution was found, the

quit the coalition. Leterme offered his resignation to King

Albert II of Belgium Albert II (born 6 June 1934) is a member of the Belgian royal family who reigned as King of the Belgians from 9 August 1993 until his abdication on 21 July 2013. Albert II is the son of King Leopold III and the last living child of Queen As ...

on 22 April 2010. On 26 April 2010, after a final round of consultations by

Didier Reynders Didier Reynders (; born 6 August 1958) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Reformist Movement, Mouvement Réformateur (MR) that served as List of European Commissioners for Justice and Equality, European Commissioner for Justice until 30 ...

failed, the king accepted the resignation. New elections were held on 13 June 2010. As of 26 April 2010 the Leterme II government became a

until it was succeeded by the Di Rupo I Government.

References

{{Belgian governments Belgian governments 2009 establishments in Belgium 2010 disestablishments in Belgium Cabinets established in 2009 Cabinets disestablished in 2010