Peter De Roover

Peter De Roover
De Roover in 2024
President of the Chamber of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 10 July 2024
Preceded by	Eliane Tillieux
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
Incumbent
Assumed office 19 June 2014
Personal details
Born	Peter De Roover (1962-05-20) 20 May 1962 (age 62) Turnhout, Belgium
Political party	N-VA (2014–present)
Other political affiliations	VU (until 1988)
Alma mater	University of Antwerp
Occupation	Economy teacher • Politician

Peter De Roover (born 20 May 1962) is a Belgian politician, economist, journalist and former broadcaster and a member of the Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance party.

De Roover was elected as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 2014 for the Antwerp constituency. He serves as the N-VA's faction leader in the Federal Parliament and has served as President of the Chamber of Representatives since July 2024.

De Roover was born in Turnhout. From 1980 to 1984, he studied economics at the Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp where he was active in the Flemish nationalist Nationalistische Studentenvereniging (NSV) and the conservative Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV) groups and helped to edit the KVHV magazine Tegenstroom. After graduating he worked as an economics lecturer at the Sint-Aloysius school in Mortsel and then at the Sint-Eligius college in Antwerp. ^[1]

De Roover became politically active in the VUJO, the youth-wing of the former Volksunie (VU) party but left the VU in 1988 due to disagreeing with its political course and struggles between the left and right-wing factions within the party. He subsequently joined the Vlaamse Volksbeweging (VVB) with Jan Jambon and co-founded the VVB's chapter in Antwerp in 1989.^[2]

In the 1990s, De Roover took a break from politics to focus on a career in journalism. In 1999, he began contributing a finance column in the Flemish cultural and political magazine (now web blogsite) Doorbraak and became Doorbraak's editor-in-chief in 2013. In 2001, he founded the conservative publication Point. He also worked as a columnist and reporter for De Standaard, De Morgen and Knack and was a presenter on the VRT current affairs show Terzake.^[3]

In 2014, he ran for the Belgian Federal Parliament for the N-VA party and was elected to the Chamber of Representatives for the Antwerp constituency.^[4] In 2015, he was appointed treasurer of the party and in 2016 resigned from this role to become the N-VA's group leader and spokesman in the Chamber.^[5][6][7]

During the Michel I Government in which the N-VA provided support to the government of Charles Michel, De Roover was known for his outspoken opposition to the government on certain policies. In 2018, he attracted attention for his stance against the Belgian government in signing the UN Migration Pact which was supported by all parties in the cabinet apart from the N-VA.^[8] The N-VA subsequently withdrew their support to the government after the treaty was adopted triggering the collapse of the Michel I' cabinet. In the 2024 Belgian federal election De Roover ran as the list pusher for the Antwerp constituency and was again elected to parliament. In 2024, he was elected President of the Chamber.^[9]

De Roover has campaigned for the Armenian genocide to be formally recognised by both the Belgian government and international community. In 2023, he was awarded the Mkhitar Gosh Medal for his work on supporting the rights of Armenian minority communities and recognition of the genocide.^[10]

De Roover is in a relationship with fellow N-VA politician Els van Doesburg whom he became engaged to in November 2021.^[11]