ALDE Party Congress Brussels 2025

Kristen Michal

Prime Minister of Estonia

Reform Party, Estonia  

Kristen Michal is the leader of the Estonian Reform Party and Prime Minister of Estonia since 2024. With a law background, he worked as an advisor to the Reform Party and Prime Minister Siim Kallas until joining the Estonian Parliament and becoming Secretary General of the Reform Party from 2003 to 2011. He served in the Estonian government since 2012 with the portfolios of Justice, Economic Affairs and Climate.

Svenja Hahn

ALDE Party President

FDP, Germany 

Originally from Hambourg, Svenja Hahn is a German MEP elected in 2019 for the FDP. She previously served as President of LYMEC (2018-2020), ELF Vice-President (2020-2022) and ALDE Party Vice President (2022-2024), when she led the 2024 manifesto drafting process. In 2025, she was elected Vice-President of the FDP.  

ALDE Party President since October 2024, she works to unite liberal forces across Europe and defend democracy.   

Xavier Bettel

Deputy Prime Minister of Luxembourg

 DP, Luxembourg

Xavier Bettel was first elected to the Luxembourg Parliament in 1999 and served multiple terms, holding roles such as vice-chairman of the Legal Affairs Committee and chairman of the DP parliamentary group. At the local level, he was a municipal councillor, alderman, and later mayor of Luxembourg City until becoming Prime Minister in 2013, a role he held through two coalition governments until 2023. Following the 2023 elections, he became Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade, and Minister for Development Cooperation and Humanitarian Affairs.

Dominic Fritz

Party Leader of USR Romania and Mayor of Timișoara

 USR, Romania

Eva De Bleeker

Party Leader of Open VLD

 Open VLD, Belgium

Eva De Bleeker was first a member of the municipal council of Hoeiland as well as alderman, until joining the federal government in 2020. In 2024 she resumed her position as alderman until the end of the year. She was then elected in the Flemish Parliament representing the Flemish Brabant. In 2024, she was elected Party Leader of Open VLD.

Mariana Leitão 

Party Leader of Iniciativa Liberal

Iniciativa Liberal, Portugal

Mariana Leitão is the party leader of Iniciativa Liberal, a member of the Portuguese Parliament and leader of the Iniciativa Liberal parliamentary group. An expert bridge player graduated in international relations, she worked in business administration before joining IL in 2019. She joined the council of her home city of Oeiras in 2021 and became the Secretary General of IL’s parliamentary group in 2023. In 2024, she was elected MP in the Lisbon constituency and has led IL’s parliamentary group ever since. She was re-elected in the 2025 snap election and took over the leadership of Iniciativa Liberal in July 2025.  

Georges-Louis Bouchez  

Party Leader of MR

 MR, Belgium

Georges-Louis Bouchez began his career as adviser to Deputy Prime Minister Didier Reynders, later becoming an adviser at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs. In 2019 he served as MR campaign spokesperson before being elected senator. On 28 November 2019, he succeeded Charles Michel as president of the Mouvement Réformateur and in 2024 he was re-elected both as Party President and as a member of Parliament. 

Kaja Kallas  

Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy

 Reform Party, Estonia

Kaja Kallas is Vice-President of the European Commission and High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy since 2024. With a lawyer background, she became a member of the Estonian Parliament in 2010 and heading the Economic Affairs committee. She was elected MEP in 2014, where she worked on digital regulation. She led the Reform Party to two victorious elections in 2019 and 2023. She was Prime Minister of Estonia from 2021 to 2024 and led 3 coalition government in that time.

Marie Bjerre  

Minister FOR European Affairs OF Denmark

 Venstre, Denmark

Marie Bjerre is Minister of European Affairs for Denmark and leading the Danish Presidency of the Council of the EU. A lawyer by profession, she practises law in Aalborg while working for Venstre. In 2019, she is elected Member of the Danish Parliament and re-elected in 2022. When Venstre joins the coalition government in December 2022, she is appointed Minister for Digitalisation and Equality. In August 2024, she is appointed EU Affairs minister and leads the preparatory work for the EU Council presidency by travelling to all 26 other Member States.  

Nicole Büttner

FDP Secretary General and CEO of Merantix Momentum

 FDP, Germany 

Nicole Büttner is an entrepreneur, technology economist and digital expert. She has been Secretary General of the FDP since May 2025. At the same time, she is the founder and managing director of Merantix Momentum, an artificial intelligence company, among other things.

After studying economics in St. Gallen, Paris, Stockholm and Stanford, she worked in the financial sector and for a technology company in Palo Alto.

Helmut Brandstätter

Member of the European Parliament 

Moderator

 NEOS, Austria 

Helmut Brandstätter is an Austrian MEP from the NEOS party since 2024 and working on foreign affairs and democracy issues. Active in politics since 2019, he was a Member of the Austrian National Council until 2024. Previously, he led a very successful career as a journalist, foreign correspondent and TV anchor for the Austrian public television ORF. He was editor-in-chief for the daily newspaper the Kurier during the 2010s. 

Micheál Martin

Party Leader of Fianna Fáil

 Fianna Fáil, Ireland 

Originally from Cork, Micheál Martin is the party leader of Fianna Fáil and Prime Minister/Taoiseach of Ireland. With a teacher background, he has been elected member of the Irish Parliament for the Cork South-Central constituency since 1989. He held several ministerial portfolios in FF cabinets from 1997 to 2010. In 2011, he took over the leadership of the party and became leader of the opposition until 2020. After successfully setting up a historical coalition, he became Taoiseach from 2020 to 2022, Tánaiste and Foreign Affairs and Defence Minister from 2022 to 2024. After an electoral victory, he was elected Taoiseach again in January 2025 under the same system. 

Robert Golob

Prime Minister of Slovenia

 Gibanje Svoboda, Slovenia

Robert Golob is party leader of Gibanje Svoboda and Prime Minister of Slovenia since 2022. With a PhD in electrical engineering, he co-founded and chaired an energy trading company until 2021. He was State Secretary at the Ministry of Economic Affairs from 1999 to 2000, member of the local council of Nova Gorica between 2002 and 2022. In 2022, he took over the small extra-parliamentary Z.DEJ, renamed it unto the Freedom Movement and won the legislative election of April 2022.

Hadja Lahbib

European Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality

 MR, Belgium

Hadja Lahbib is the European Commissioner for Preparedness, Crisis Management and Equality, nominated by the Belgium government and appointed by the European Parliament at the end of 2024. After a successful career as a journalist, war correspondent and TV anchor for the French-speaking Belgian broadcast RTBF, she joined politics in 2022 when she became the MR-appointed Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium. In 2023, she successfully negotiated the liberation of humanitarian worker Olivier Vandecasteele from Iranian jail. In 2024, she ran in the Brussels regional election but had to give up her mandate to become Commissioner.

Michael McGrath

European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law

 Fianna Fáil, Ireland

Michael McGrath is the European Commissioner for Democracy, Justice and Rule of Law, nominated by the Irish government and appointed by the European Parliament at the end of 2024. A native of Cork, he studied commerce and became an accountant. Member of a city council from 1999 till 2007, he became member of the Irish Parliament for the Cork South-Central constituency between 2007 and his nomination as Commissioner. From 2020 until 2024, he was consecutively minister for public expenditure and minister for finance in the Irish government.  

Marta Kos 

European Commissioner for Enlargement

 Gibanje Svoboda, Slovenia

Marta Kos is the European Commissioner for Enlargement, nominated by the Slovenian government and appointed by the European Parliament at the end of 2024. A swimming champion, she started her career in journalism at the Slovenia public broadcast RTV. From 1997 till 1999, she managed the communication of the Slovenian government. From 2013 till 2020, she was consecutively appointed ambassador to Germany and to Switzerland. She resigned in 2020 due to her disagreement with the policies of populist Prime Minister of the time Janez Janša. She has been involved with Gibanje Svoboda since the inception of the party in 2022.   

Stéphane Séjourné

Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy

Renaissance, France 

Stéphane Séjourné is Executive Vice-President of the European Commission for Prosperity and Industrial Strategy, nominated by the French government and appointed by the European Parliament. Growing up in France, Spain and Argentina and with a background in European and public law, he held a career in political cabinets from 2007 until 2019. Between 2014 and 2019, he was advisor of Emmanuel Macron as Economy Minister and later President of the French Republic. Elected MEP in 2019, he took over the leadership of the Renew Europe group in 2021. He was the party leader of Renaissance from 2022 till 2024. In January 2024, he is appointed Foreign Affairs Ministers, before joining the Commission with the internal market portfolio at the end of 2024. 

Anders Adlercreutz 

party leader of SFP and Minister of Education of Finland

SFP, Finland 

Anders Adlercreutz is the party leader of SFP and Minister of Education of Finland since July 2024. Architect by profession, he served as local councillor of Kirkkonummi until 2015, when he joined the Finnish Parliament as a member. After being re-elected twice in 2019 and 2023, he became Minister of European Affairs and Ownership Steering in June 2023. He succeeded MEP Anna-Maja Henriksson as SFP party leader in June 2024 and became Education Minister.

Guy Verhofstadt

President of the European Movement International | MEP

Open VLD, Belgium 

Guy Verhofstadt is President of the European Movement International since December 2023. A law graduate, he became president of the PVV (now Open VLD) in 1982 and a member of the Belgian Parliament, minister and Vice-Prime Minister in 1985. In 1999, he forms a coalition and becomes Prime Minister of Belgium until 2008. He is elected MEP in 2009 and takes the presidency of the ALDE group in the European Parliament until 2019. He continues as MEP until 2024, pushing relentlessly for a reform of EU institutions towards greater integration.  

David Clarinval

Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Employment, Economy and Agriculture of Belgium

MR, Belgium 

David Clarinval is Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Employment, Economy and Agriculture of Belgium since February 2025. A social science graduate, he worked in his family construction company before joining politics. He became Mayor of Bièvre, in Wallonia, in 2001 and has been consecutively re-elected ever since. Provincial councillor in 2006, he enters the Belgian Federal Parliament in 2007 and becomes MR group leader in 2017. He is appointed Budget Minister in 2019 and Minister for the Middle Class, the Self-Employed, SMEs, Agriculture, Institutional Reform and Democratic Renewal in 2020 until 2025. He has been Deputy Prime Minister for MR since 2019.

Radu Miruță 

Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism of Romania

USR, Romania 

Radu Miruță is Minister of Economy, Digitalisation, Entrepreneurship, and Tourism of Romania. A graduate in engineering, he joined USR and is elected Member of the Romanian Parliament in 2020 and 2024 for the Gorj constituency. At the favour of USR joining a coalition government under Prime Minister Bolojan, he became Economy Minister in June 2025.

Thomas Byrne

Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence of Ireland

Fianna Fáil, Ireland

Thomas Byrne is Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence in the Irish government. Working as a solicitor in Meath County, he was elected the youngest Fianna Fáil Member of the Irish Parliament in 2007. Elected senator in 2011, he was re-elected to the Dáil in 2016. From 2020 until 2024, he was consecutively Minister of State for European Affairs and for Sport and Physical Education. At the formation of the new Irish government, he was appointed Minister of State for European Affairs and Defence in January 2025.

Oana Țoiu 

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania

USR, Romania

Oana Țoiu is Minister of Foreign Affairs of Romania. A graduate in communications, she becomes State Secretary on the Labour and Social Protection Ministry in 2016-2017. In 2020, she become Member of the Romanian Parliament from the Bucharest district. She is reelected in 2024. At the favour of USR joining a coalition government under Prime Minister Bolojan, she was appointed Minister in June 2025.

Hilde Vautmans

Member of the European Parliament

Open VLD, Belgium

Hilde Vautmans is a Belgian MEP from the Open VLD party since 2015 and working on foreign affairs issues. A graduate of sociology and criminology, she worked as parliamentary assistant and cabinet member of Guy Verhofstadt while he was Prime Minister. Member of the Belgian Parliament between 2003 and 2010, she is active in local politics in Sint-Truiden and previously in Hasselt. She is serving her third mandate as MEP and has been the President of the European Liberal Forum between 2020 and 2024.

Diana Buzoianu

Minister of Environment, Water and Forests of Romania

USR, Romania