Sophie Wilmès

Sophie Wilmès (French pronunciation: [sɔfi wilmɛs]; born 15 January 1975) is a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2019 to 2020. She later served as minister of foreign affairs from 2020 to 2022. A member of the Reformist Movement, she is the first woman to hold either position.

Wilmès was elected to the Chamber of Representatives in 2014, and served as budget minister in the first and second governments of Charles Michel from 2015 to 2019. In the aftermath of the 2019 Belgian federal election, Philippe of Belgium appointed Wilmès to lead a caretaker government (the Wilmès I Government) before she formed an executive government (the Wilmès II Government) in March 2020 to handle the COVID-19 pandemic.

In October 2020, she joined the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo as foreign minister and deputy prime minister. She resigned in 2022 to take care of her husband who suffered from brain cancer.

In June 2024, she was elected Member of the European Parliament, of which she is currently one of the Vice-Presidents.

Early life

Wilmès was born in Ixelles, Brussels on 15 January 1975. Her father, Philippe Wilmès, was a banker and economics professor at the Université catholique de Louvain who had been active in liberal politics and had served as chef de cabinet to Jean Gol of the Liberal Reformist Party (Parti Réformateur Libéral, PRL). Her paternal grandparents were killed in the bombing of Limal during World War II. Her mother is of Jewish descent and lost several relatives in the Holocaust and had worked in the office of Mieke Offeciers between 1992 and 1993, during her term as Minister of Budget. Wilmès grew up in the town of Grez-Doiceau, Walloon Brabant.