Belgian PM De Croo announces resignation after heavy election loss

De Croo will now tend his resignation to King Philippe, who has the power to reject it at his discretion.

Transcript

00:00 Belgian Prime Minister Alexander de Kruy has suffered a crushing defeat in the country's

00:06 general elections with his liberal Open VLD party managing less than 7% of the vote.

00:13 "We liberals are combative and we are valuable. And I am convinced that we will stand again.

00:20 I have seen an incredible amount of young talent in the past few weeks and I am particularly

00:32 hopeful in this regard."

00:34 Despite polls predicting that the far-right anti-immigration Flams Belang party would

00:38 become the main political force, the right-wing nationalist New Flemish Alliance retained

00:43 first place with an expected 22%. Flams Belang came in second taking 17.5% of the vote.

00:50 "It's important nowadays to give Flemish a different direction. Belgium is the past,

00:58 Flemish is the future. The Flemish people need a new government which is Flemish and

01:03 is right-wing."

01:05 Sunday's results will result in complex negotiations to form coalitions in a country divided by

01:11 language and deep regional identities.

01:14 Flams Belang has so far been blocked from entering governments as mainstream parties

01:19 vow to exclude it from power under a "cordon sanitaire" doctrine. That refers to the protective

01:25 barrier put in place to stop the spread of infectious diseases.

01:29 [BLANK_AUDIO]