The Chamber on Thursday approved the nomination of Frank Fleerackers, a professor at KU Leuven, for selection as a judge on the Constitutional Court.
Fleerackers, nominated by the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA), secured the required two-thirds majority in a secret ballot.
He becomes the third judge proposed by the Flemish nationalist party to serve on the court, which is made up of six Dutch-speaking judges, alongside six French-speaking ones. If, as is expected, he is selected by the Government, he will replace Luc Lavrysen, who steps down on 16 April.
Fleerackers is known for his ties to the Flemish Movement and serves as a member of the Vereniging Vlaamse Academici (Association of Flemish Academics – VVA).
He was one of three candidates, alongside Koen Lemmens, also a professor at KU Leuven, and Jan Theunis, a referendaire at the Constitutional Court and professor at Hasselt University.
Lemmens will appear as the second candidate on the government’s selection list, but this position is symbolic since the government customarily selects the first candidate.
The nomination process adheres to the Dhondt allocation key, whereby political groups — excluding Vlaams Belang and the Belgian Workers Party (PTB) — propose judges for the court. Approval requires a two-thirds majority in either the Chamber or Senate, meaning candidates must gain cross-party support.
Thursday's vote follows a major political setback for Prime Minister Bart De Wever two weeks earlier, when he failed to achieve the two-thirds majority required in the Chamber to pass reforms on the procedure for appointing judges to the Constitutional Court.
