The Verhofstadt 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 12 July 2003 to 21 December 2007. It was the second government headed by

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 ...

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He was a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium from 2009 until 2024. He was a me ...

( VLD). It was formed after the 2003 general election. It consisted of the

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 v ...

(VLD), the French-speaking Liberal Reformist Party (MR), the Flemish

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 ...

(SP.a) and the French-speaking

(PS). Because it comprised liberals and

socialists Socialism is an economic and political philosophy encompassing diverse economic and social systems characterised by social ownership of the means of production, as opposed to private ownership. It describes the economic, political, and socia ...

, it was also known as a "purple" coalition. It was a continuation of the

Verhofstadt I Government The Verhofstadt I Government was the Belgian Federal Government, federal government of Belgium from 12 July 1999 to 12 July 2003. It was the first government headed by Prime Minister of Belgium, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (Flemish Liberals ...

but without the Green parties.

Original Composition 2003-2004

Parliamentary support of the Verhofstadt II government

Reshuffles

*On 25 September 2003, Temsamani had to resign because she had lied about a diploma she received *On 12 February 2004, Jacques Simonet resigned to become Minister-President of Brussels, he was replaced by Didier Donfut (PS).

Composition after the 2004 Regional elections

The 2004 Regional elections saw a fundamental reshuffle to the federal government as various federal ministers joined regional governments after these elections. The federal government after this date is often called ''Verhofstadt IIbis''.

2004 Reshuffles

* Louis Michel became European Commissioner and was replaced as Deputy Prime Minister by Didier Reynders and as Foreign Minister by

Karel De Gucht Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht (; born 27 January 1954) is a Belgian politician who was the European Commissioner for Trade from February 2010 until 31 October 2014.Flemish Government The Flemish Government ( ) is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President of Flanders, Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Par ...

and was replaced as minister of Labour by Freya Van den Bossche who kept Consumer Affairs.

Bruno Tobback Bruno Tobback (born 22 August 1969) is the former president of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit from 2011 to 2015. He was Minister of Environment and Pensions in the Belgian federal government from 2004 until 2007. He is the son of former ...

(SP.a) became minister taking over Environment from Freya Van den Bossche and Pensions from Vandenbroucke. * Fientje Moerman joined the Flemish Government and was replaced as minister for Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade and Scientific Research by Marc Verwilghen, who in turn was succeeded as minister of Development Cooperation by Armand De Decker (MR). * Bert Anciaux joined the Flemish Government and was succeeded as minister for Mobility by Renaat Landuyt (SP.a) * Marie Arena became Minister-President of the French Community government and was replaced as minister by Christian Dupont (PS) * Els Van Weert (Spirit) became state secretary for Sustainable Development * Isabelle Simonis was replaced by Gisèle Mandaila Malamba (MR) as state secretary for Family and Persons with a handicap

Later Reshuffles

* On 15 October 2005, Johan Vande Lanotte resigned to become Chairman of the SP.a. He was replaced as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget by Freya Van den Bossche, who kept Consumer Affairs. Peter Vanvelthoven was promoted to Minister of Labour and Informatisation and Bruno Tuybens (SP.a) became state secretary for Public Enterprises. * After the 2007 general elections the Verhofstadt II Government functioned as a caretaker government until December 2007. During that periode the following reshuffling took place: **On 15 July 2007, Armand De Decker became Chairman of the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( ; ; ) is one of the two chambers of the Bicameralism, bicameral Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be ...

. His competence (Development Cooperation) was taken over by Sabine Laruelle and Hervé Jamar was promoted to minister. **In July 2007 Rudy Demotte became Minister-President of the Walloon Government. His competences were taken over by Didier Donfut, who was promoted to minister. {{Belgian governments Belgian governments 2003 establishments in Belgium 2007 disestablishments in Belgium Cabinets established in 2003 Cabinets disestablished in 2007 Grand coalition governments