Theo Francken

At the federal elections in 2010, Theo Francken was head of the list for the province of Vlaams-Brabant, campaigning on issues like asylum, migration and integration. Achieving 13,164 personal votes, he became elected in the Belgian Federal Parliament, the Kamer van volksvertegenwoordigers. Francken was a very vocal new member of Parliament and strove to make Belgium's notoriously lax migration laws more strict, achieving a stricter legislation on family reunification as well as a stricter procedure on the acquisition of the Belgian nationality.

At the municipal elections of 2012, he again lead N-VA to the polls in his native town Lubbeek. Achieving 25.68% of the votes, N-VA became the biggest party and Theo Francken became mayor of Lubbeek in January 2013.

At the federal elections in 2014, Francken achieved 44,489 votes and once again became elected in the Belgian Federal Parliament. Subsequently, he entered the government on 11 October 2014, as State Secretary for Asylum, Migration, and Administrative Simplification in the federal government Regering-Michel I.

During his time in office, Francken enforced a series of administrative practices and legislative changes to enhance the return of illegal immigrants, achieving records in repatriating illegal immigrants jailed for criminal offences. He was the most popular politician in Flanders at one point.

In his second year in office, 2015, Francken was confronted with the European Migration Crisis, that brought a record of 44,660 asylum seekers to Belgium according to Eurostat data. In order to fulfill Belgium's European obligation under the Reception Conditions Directive EU directive for the reception of asylum seekers, Francken set out to double the reception capacity of Belgium in a matter of months, working closely together with then Minister of Defence Steven Vandeput, who put numerous army barracks at the disposal of Theo Francken to house new arrivals of asylum seekers.

During a meeting with fellow European Migration Ministers in the European Council of Ministers of May 2018, Theo Francken called the reform of the Dublin-regulation “dead" and instead put forward the idea that Europe needs an ‘Australian style’ border defence, meaning Europe needs to strike migration deals with third countries on the other side of the Mediterranean Sea, where illegal immigrants intercepted by European ships can be safely put ashore and sheltered in a humane fashion, whereby asylum migration to EU countries would be limited to legal humanitarian migration by means of national humanitarian visa. However, Theo Francken was immediately rebuffed by EU Commissioner Dimitris Avramopoulos, who quickly issued a statement that Europe would never follow the Australian model of border protection. Theo Francken remained a very vocal advocate of zero tolerance to illegal immigration, calling Europe's migration model ‘inhumane’, and further elaborated these ideas in a bestselling book published in October 2018, bearing the title ‘Continent without borders’ (Continent zonder Grens).

The end of 2018 also saw rising tensions within various EU Member States on the issue of United Nations Global Compact on Migration. The N-VA was staunchly opposed to the Migration Pact, leading to the fall of the government on 9 December 2018. Following the demise of the government, Francken became an opposition politician and once again resumed his role as member in the Federal Parliament. In the following general elections, Theo Francken was re-elected member of the Federal Parliament, dwarfing his opponents by reaping 122,738 personal votes.

In September 2019, he was appointed by the Chamber as leader of the Belgian delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly.

As an opposition member of parliament, Francken has expressed support for Israel and in 2022 joined in with MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez in speaking out in parliament against a demonstration in Brussels by supporters of the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas by stating “Are we in Gaza? In Beirut? In Cairo? No, in Brussels. A demonstration of Hamas hatred overflowing with anti-Semitism, hatred of Jews, glorification of terrorism and calls for violence in the streets of our capital" and added "it is disturbing to see what the Vivaldi (the Belgian coalition government) allows in our streets."

Following the start of the Gaza war, Francken criticised the left-wing parties in the Belgian Federal Parliament for downplaying the October 7 attack. In 2023, he appeared on the Israeli news channel i24News in which he said Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and Spain's Pedro Sanchez "make no distinction between Israel, a mature democracy, and Hamas, a terrorist organisation and the autocracy of the Palestinian Authority. It is as if they are equally guilty."

Francken again became the list leader for N-VA in Flemish Brabant for the 2024 Belgian federal election. With a score of 73,820 preference votes, he was re-elected to the Chamber. He then became the group leader for his party.

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