number of political parties in parliament and go to a more American and British style parliament with fractions within larger parties (drawing on the Conservative and Labour and Republican Party and Democratic Party dualism in the UK and USA respectively). De Wever has expressed his desire to attract CD&V, Open VLD and some Vlaams Belang voters. Joachim Coens, former leader of CD&V, supports the idea and argues it would make future government formations easier. In November 2020, he was reelected leader of the N-VA with 96.8% of the votes for a new three-year mandate. This made De Wever the longest serving leader of a Belgian political party. In March 2022, he said during a radio interview that Russian President Vladimir Putin will not end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as he is a "psychopath" and a "madman", adding: "[Putin] said: ‘I will squash the Russians who are against me like mosquitoes’. When did I hear that before? I think here, 70 years ago." 2010 Belgian Federal Election An early election was held on 13 June 2010, resulting in the N-VA winning most votes in the Dutch-speaking areas and the Socialist Party (PS) in French-speaking Belgium. Nationally the two parties were almost even with 27 seats for the N-VA and 26 for the PS, the remaining seats being split between ten other parties. For 541 days after the elections, no agreement could be reached among the parties on a coalition to form a new government and during that period the country continued to be governed by an interim government. On 6 December 2011, the Di Rupo I Government was sworn in. De Wever and the N-VA were not included in the makeup of this government. Regarding the 25 May 2014, federal election, PS party leader Elio Di Rupo noted that his party will be unwilling to enter into a dialogue with De Wever and the N-VA regarding forming a new federal government. Political positions Politically, De Wever calls himself as a conservative and a Flemish nationalist He is an avowed admirer of Edmund Burke and his political philosophy, and has described British conservative writer and social critic Theodore Dalrymple, former Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and Austrian economist Friedrich Hayek as influences. De Wever has also written opinion columns and essays for De Morgen and De Standaard which he published as a book titled The Precious Fabric of Society in 2008. Political philosopher