• When he was born, his father, a staunch Flemish nationalist, tucked a membership card for the Volksunie (the party that preceded the N-VA) in his nappy. De Wever later did the same with his own four children, aged between eight and two.

• His grandfather spent time in prison after the Second World War, suspected of collaboration with Germany. His father was later a member of the Flemish Militant Order. Bart first took part in a demonstration for the splitting of Brussels- Halle-Vilvoorde when he was three years old, hanging from his father’s hand.

• His hero at school was Julius Caesar, among other notable Romans. He was known at school as “the philosopher”.

• As a youth, he was a right-wing conservative, and among his heroes was Ronald Reagan. He is nowadays an admirer of the Irish philosopher and historian Edmund Burke and the British columnist Theodore Dalrymple.

• At university, he frittered away his time playing Risk in cafes with his friends, doubtless an excellent preparation for a life in politics, but less useful for his law studies, which he abandoned after two years.

• He went on to study history, against the advice of his brother Bruno, 11 years his senior and himself a historian, now a professor at Ghent University. Bruno thinks exclusive Flemish claims to the areas around Brussels are nonsense.

• His sister Karina lives in Wallonia.

• He suffers from a morbid fear of dirt and doesn’t like to be touched. He has also admitted difficulty accepting praise, which causes him to “shrink mentally and physically into myself ”. He also said: “I don’t believe in psychiatry”.

• A photo of him at a rally of French rightwing leader Jean-Marie Le Pen in 1996 has come back to haunt him. He has been at pains to distance himself from Le Pen’s extremism and racism. He did not apologise, however, for his presence at the funeral of Karel Dillen, who set up the Vlaams Blok from the rubble of the Volksunie and who was a good friend of De Wever’s father.

• He became N-VA party president in 2004 but only rose to major public recognition through the TV quiz show De Slimste Mens Ter Wereld, where his broad knowledge and quick wit were much appreciated. In one round he scored 10 out of 10 identifying photos of animal droppings. His explanation: “You can’t have shit thrown at you the whole day long without learning something about it.” He narrowly missed winning the series title.

• The ringtone on his mobile phone until recently was the theme music from The A-Team.

• The hyphen in his party’s abbreviation, N-VA, has no significance. It was included to differentiate the new party, in the eyes of search engines, from the Dutch Union for Autism: the Nederlandse Vereniging voor Autisten.