Bart Albert Liliane De Wever ( born 21 December 1970) is a Belgian politician. Since 2004, De Wever has been the leader of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), a political party advocating for the independence of Flanders. He is also a member of the Chamber of Representatives. De Wever played a prominent role in the 2007 Belgian government formation and presided over his party's victory in the 2010 federal elections when N-VA became the largest party in both Flanders and in Belgium as a whole. Since January 2013, he has been Mayor of Antwerp, following the 2012 municipal elections. Biography De Wever was born in Mortsel and grew up in Kontich where his parents Irene and Henri owned a small supermarket. His father had previously worked for a Belgian railway company and was briefly active in the Vlaamse Militanten Orde before becoming a local administrator for the Volksunie. De Wever's older brother is historian and professor who teaches at Ghent University. His grandfather had been the secretary of the Flemish National Union, a Flemish far-right party from the interwar period that had been recognised as the ruling party of Flanders during the Nazi occupation of Belgium. However, during an interview, Bart De Wever nuanced his grandfather's past by claiming he had not collaborated with the Nazis. De Wever began studying a law degree at the University of Antwerp but dropped out before switching to study History Saint Ignatius University Centre, Antwerp and then the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL), graduating with a licentiate (equivalent of the master's degree) followed by a PhD in History. As a student he was a member of the classical liberal Liberaal Vlaams Studentenverbond (LVSV, Liberal Flemish Students' Union) and the conservative Katholiek Vlaams Hoogstudentenverbond (KVHV, Catholic Flemish Students' Union) of Antwerp and Leuven. He is a former editor-in-chief of the KVHV newspapers Tegenstroom (magazine of KVHV in Antwerp) and Ons Leven (in Leuven). After graduating, he was employed as a research assistant working on the Nieuwe Encyclopedie van de Vlaamse Beweging (New Encyclopedia of the Flemish Movement) and published a biography of controversial Flemish politician Joris Van Severen. De Wever is married to a Dutch national with whom he has four children. They live together in Deurne. In 2012, De Wever undertook a crash diet and lost 60 kilos. His physical transformation was noted by the Belgian media and he subsequently published a book advising