Kruisem

Kruisem
Municipality
Location of Kruisem
Country	Belgium
Community	Flemish Community
Region	Flemish Region
Province	East Flanders
Arrondissement	Oudenaarde
Government
• Mayor	Joop Verzele
• Governing party/ies	CD&V
Area
• Total	71.59 km2 (27.64 sq mi)
Population  (2022-01-01)
• Total	15,876
• Density	220/km2 (570/sq mi)
NIS code	45068

Kruisem is a municipality in the Belgian province of East Flanders that was established on 1 January 2019 from the merging of the municipalities of Kruishoutem and Zingem.

The merged municipality will have an area of 70.70 km² and count more than 15,000 inhabitants.

Creation

See also: Fusion of the Belgian municipalities

The Flemish Government provides incentives for municipalities to voluntarily merge. The municipal councils of Kruishoutem and Zingem approved a merge in 2017, which was ratified by Flemish decree of 4 May 2018 alongside several other merges, all to be effective per 1 January 2019.

As of 1 January 2018, the municipality of Kruishoutem had a population of 8,086 and Zingem a population of 7,552.

Government

The first elections for the new municipality were held during the regular local elections of 14 October 2018, electing a municipal council for the legislative period of 2019–2024. CD&V obtained a majority of seats in the municipal council (14 out of 25). Joop Verzele becomes mayor of Kruisem.