The Cabinet of Belgium (officially called the Belgian Federal Cabinet) is the executive branch of the Belgian federal government, consisting of ministers and secretaries of state ("junior", or deputy-ministers who do not sit in the Council of Ministers) drawn from the political parties which form the governing coalition. Formally, the ministers are appointed by the King. The Cabinet is chaired by the Prime Minister of Belgium, and the Ministers head executive departments of the government. Some federal ministers do not have seats in the Parliament.
The number of ministers is limited to 15, equally divided between French-speaking and Dutch-speaking ministers, according to Art. 99 of the Constitution. Although the Prime Minister is officially exempt from this quota, no francophones held the post from 1979 to 2011. Cabinet meetings are conducted through simultaneous interpreters.
The Prime Minister and his ministers administer the government and the various public services. As in the United Kingdom, ministers must defend their policies and performance in person before the Chamber.
At the federal level, executive power is wielded by the Cabinet. The Prime Minister is President of the Cabinet. Each minister heads a governmental department. The Cabinet reflects the weight of political parties that constitute the current governing coalition for the Chamber. No single party or party family across linguistic lines holds an absolute majority of seats in Parliament.
The former Cabinet, the Leterme II government succeeded the Van Rompuy I Government on 24 November 2009, after Herman Van Rompuy became the first President of the European Council. On 22 April 2010, Prime Minister Yves Leterme again offered the resignation of his cabinet to the king. Due to the inability of the political parties to agree on the formation of a new government, the Leterme Cabinet remained in office in a caretaker role for 589 days--the longest run on record for a caretaker government in the developed world--until 6 December 2011, when Elio di Rupo formed the Di Rupo I Government. Di Rupo is the first francophone to hold this post since Paul Vanden Boeynants left office in 1979.
Read more about Cabinet Of Belgium: Primary Cabinet Members, Formation
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