Pillen sat in the Chamber until Van Quickenborne resigned on October 20 in the aftermath of the attack in Brussels and took his seat again. Shortly afterwards, the party’s vice-chairman announced that he was fully committed to running for the position of party leader on the Flemish list. “Security, Freedom and Entrepreneurship: the core values of our liberal story. I want to consistently defend and strengthen them. As party leader, I will fully fight for this,” said Pillen.