Werner Somers

Somers was born in 1974 in Ninove. He is descended from the Seven Noble Houses of Brussels and remains a member of associations of the group. Somers graduated with a degree in the German language at the University of Ghent in 1996 followed by a master's degree in law at the Open University of the Netherlands where his thesis focused on the legal status of Taiwan.^[1] He first worked as a translator and then a lawyer at the European Court of Justice in Luxembourg. He finally graduated with a doctorate in Belgian law at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in 2023.^[2]

While at the University of Ghent, he became active in the Nationalistische Studentenvereniging (NSV) and was a volunteer for the Vlaams Blok party faction in the Chamber of Representatives. In 2000, he was elected as a municipal councilor in Ninove for Forza Ninove (the local chapter of Vlaams Blok and later Vlaams Belang). He resigned as a councilor in 2016 citing difficulties with living abroad for his work. For the 2024 Belgian federal election he was elected to the Chamber of Representatives for the East Flanders region.^[3]