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Political pets - The Belgian PM's cat is a social media star

maximus the cat sat on the Belgian PM's deskInstagram/bartdewever1

Maximus Textoris Pulcher's name is a play on words in Latin, which roughly translates to: "De Wever's beautiful Maximus"

Meet Maximus Textoris Pulcher, the political puss with a big name and an even bigger social media following.

The grey Scottish Fold cat was adopted by Bart De Wever, the Prime Minister of Belgium, from a local rescue centre in August last year.

He now lives in the official prime minister's office, Rue de la Loi 16 in central Brussels, and his social media account gives a sneak peek at what life is like there.

Maximus now has over 171,000 followers on Instagram, making him the second most followed political account on Belgian social media - just behind the Prime Minister himself.

Let's take a look at some other fantastically fluffy political pets...

Larry - Chief Mouser of Downing Street

A cat sitting on a table wearing a Union Jack bow tie Getty Images

Larry the cat has a pretty famous address in the UK

Here in the UK, Larry the cat has been a staple of 10 Downing Street - where the UK's prime minister lives when they're elected - for almost fifteen years.

The striped tabby has seen not one, not two, but SIX prime ministers come and go during his time living at Number 10.

Larry was a rescue cat who was adopted by former Prime Minister David Cameron back in 2011 and given the official title of Chief Mouser.

According to the government website, Larry has "captured the hearts of the Great British public and the press teams often camped outside the front door" and spends his days "greeting guests to the house, inspecting security defences and testing antique furniture for napping quality."

Mayor Max of Idyllwild

three golden retrievers sit next to each other - max the mayor, vice mayor medow and co-mayor mitzi.Mayor Max/Facebook

The town of Idyllwild, in California in the US, has a pretty unusual mayor...

Meet Mayor Max III. He's a golden retriever dog who has been elected to be mayor of Idyllwild, in California, in the US.

Idyllwild is an unincorporated town - which means it is not run by a local government or council and doesn't have a human mayor or politicians. Instead, a larger government, like a county or province, usually takes care of things.

Back in 2012 the town held its first-ever election to choose a mayor, and Max I won with two-thirds of the votes.

He was followed by Maximus Mighty-Dog Mueller II, and now Max III is the mayor of the town, with the support of his sister Meadow as vice mayor, and Mitzi as co-mayor.