17 Facts About Theo Francken

Theo Francken was born on 7 February 1978 and is a Belgian politician who has been serving as the Minister of Defence and Foreign Trade in the De Wever government since February 2025.

Theo Francken previously was a member of the Chamber of Representatives between 2010 and 2025.

Theo Francken is a member of the New Flemish Alliance, a conservative Flemish nationalist party.

Theo Francken acquired his interest in politics during high school, where he became inspired by his history teachers instructing him on the struggle of Flemings to achieve cultural and linguistical rights within the Belgian state during the 19th and 20th centuries.

Theo Francken graduated with a degree in educational sciences at the Catholic University of Leuven and became a scientific collaborator for N-VA at the Flemish parliament.

Theo Francken founded a local N-VA-branch in his native town Lubbeek, leading it to the ballot box in the municipal elections of 2006.

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.

Theo 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 federal elections in 2014, Theo Francken achieved 44,489 votes and became elected in the Belgian Federal Parliament.

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 again became the list leader for N-VA in Flemish Brabant for the 2024 Belgian federal election.

Theo Francken then became the group leader for his party.

In May 2017 Theo Francken made several tweets accusing the NGO Medecins Sans Frontieres of human trafficking in connection with their operation to transport to provide aid to illegal migrants picked up from rubber boats off the coast of Libya trying to reach the EU without entry visa.

In January 2019, one month after his departure as Secretary of State for Asylum, Migration and Administrative Simplification, Theo Francken was questioned as a witness by Belgian judicial authorities in connection with an investigation into possible fraud involving humanitarian visas by one of his closest aides.

Theo Francken is married with two children and lives in Lubbeek.

In 2014, Theo Francken was the target of death threats from someone claiming to be an extremist Muslim along with fellow N-VA minister Jan Jambon.

Theo Francken received police protection as a result of the incident.