ABSTRACT
Belgium is generally known as a political system in which parties play a dominant role. The country is often considered a textbook example of a so-called ‘partitocracy’ (Deschouwer et al. 1996; De Winter and Dumont 2006). Needless to say then, the leaders of these political parties are crucial and powerful actors. The office of party president is generally recognised as the most important position in the party and as the most powerful one in Belgian politics apart from those of the federal and regional prime ministers.
