History, Recent Events

In June 1999 Dehaene’s center-left coalition resigned after suffering heavy losses in parliamentary elections. The coalition’s loss of popularity was the result of a highly publicized food contamination scandal that led to the banning of many Belgian food exports by the European Union and cost the Belgian economy hundreds of millions of dollars. The following month, a new center-right coalition led by the Liberal parties took office, and Liberal leader Guy Verhofstadt became prime minister. The formation of the new government, which also included the left-leaning Socialist parties and the environmentalist Green parties, marked the first time since 1958 that the Christian Democrats had been excluded from government.