Lachaert: Open Vld and CD&V Held Merger Talks

Open Vld and CD&V held concrete talks at the start of the Vivaldi government to merge into a single centre-right party, former Open Vld chairman Egbert Lachaert has revealed. According to Het Laatste Nieuws, the plan was to create one “people’s party” modelled on Germany’s Christian Democratic Union (CDU) — a bloc that Lachaert says would have represented around a quarter of the electorate.

The revelation, made in an interview with Het Nieuwsblad and published on 3 October 2026, casts new light on behind-the-scenes efforts to consolidate the fragmented Flemish centre-right at a time when both parties were struggling against the rise of N-VA and Vlaams Belang.

The Talks and Why They Failed

Lachaert, who has since left Open Vld — now rebranded as Anders — and sits as an independent MP, said he personally conducted the discussions with then-CD&V chairman Joachim Coens, involving the leadership of both parties.

“The idea was to merge into one centre-right people’s party à la the CDU,” he told Het Nieuwsblad. “Both CD&V and Open Vld were polling around 12 to 13 percent at that moment. Together we would have formed a bloc of 25 percent, with the prime minister and several key ministers as figureheads.”

According to La Libre Belgique, the talks collapsed for three reasons: strong internal resistance within both parties, opposition from Sammy Mahdi — Coens’ successor as CD&V leader — and the alleged intervention of N-VA leader Bart De Wever, who reportedly got wind of the plan and warned several CD&V figures against joining it.

Lachaert framed the potential merger as a direct threat to N-VA. “For N-VA that would have been a major threat,” he said. “N-VA would then have been sandwiched between us and Vlaams Belang.”

A Second, Less Concrete Attempt

Roughly two years later, a second and less concrete round of talks took place — this time also involving N-VA. As DH Les Sports+ reported, the aim was to form a temporary electoral cartel around five substantive policy proposals for the 2024 elections. “But that was less concrete,” Lachaert said.

Context: A Fragmented Flemish Centre-Right

The Vivaldi coalition — formally the De Croo I government — was sworn in on 1 October 2020 after nearly 500 days of negotiations. It brought together seven parties: Open Vld, CD&V, sp.a, PS, MR, Groen and Ecolo, under Prime Minister Alexander De Croo of Open Vld. As NOS noted at the time, more than half of the coalition’s seats were held by Francophone parties, drawing fierce criticism from Flemish nationalist opposition parties, who labelled the government “undemocratic” and “anti-Flemish.”

The merger idea reflected the structural squeeze on the Flemish centre. N-VA dominated the right, Vlaams Belang occupied the far right, and CD&V and Open Vld competed for the same centrist voters. A combined party polling at around 25 percent was seen as a way to build a credible counterweight.

Analysis: A Party That Lost Its Way

In a companion interview with La Libre, Lachaert was blunt about the forces that undid his party. “Bart De Wever understood our own contradiction,” he said: “Open Vld had a right-wing electorate while defending left-wing positions. So he began attacking us and broke us, piece by piece. He took our voters.”

He also criticised his party’s direction since his departure, arguing that a liberal party which remains “ambiguous” on migration, security and community issues “can never succeed,” because the electoral market for a party that is economically right-wing but socially left-wing “is too narrow.”

Open Vld’s rebranding to Anders in January 2026 has been widely read as an attempt to reset an identity eroded by years of electoral decline. Lachaert’s departure — along with other figures who cited the party’s leftward drift — underlines the depth of that crisis, with the party’s survival now openly in question.

What’s Next

The disclosure is notable for its timing as much as its content. Lachaert speaks as a free agent, unbound by party discipline, and his account of confidential 2020 talks rests largely on his own recollection. Claims about De Wever’s alleged intervention and Mahdi’s opposition have not been independently confirmed by CD&V or N-VA.

Still, the episode illustrates a recurring dilemma of Belgian politics: how to build a stable centre-right alternative in Flanders when the parties that might form it are competing for the same shrinking ground. Whether Anders can arrest its decline — or whether the next attempt at consolidation comes from elsewhere — is likely to shape the Flemish political landscape well before the next election.