In 1971, the Party for Freedom and Progress (PVV-PLP), inheritor to the historical Liberal Party of Belgium, split into a Flemish and a Francophone party,[4] anticipating the political devolution bill of 1980. Initially keeping the French version of the old party name (Parti de la liberté et du progrès), the party relaunched as the Party of Reforms and Freedom of Wallonia (Parti des réformes et de la liberté de Wallonie, PRLW) after taking over the Walloon Rally. In Brussels, the French-speaking Liberals co-operated intensively with the Democratic Front of the Francophones (FDF). In 1979, the Francophone liberals of the capital merged into the PRLW, which took the new name of Liberal Reformist Party (PRL).
The Walloon liberals participated in the federal government from 1973 to 1977 (Leburton governments I-II, Tindemans governments I-III), in 1980 (Martens government III), from 1981 to 1988 (Martens governments V-VII), and from 1999 to 2003 (Verhofstadt I Government).