Wivina Demeester

Wivina Demeester-De Meyer (born December 13, 1943 in Aalst , East Flanders Province ) is a Belgian politician of the Christelijk People's Party (CVP) who was, among other things, Budget Minister and Minister for Science Policy in the ninth government of Prime Minister Wilfried Martens between 1991 and 1992 .

Life

Member of Parliament, State Secretary and Minister in the Martens Governments

Wivina Demeester completed a degree in agricultural sciences after attending school and then worked as an agricultural engineer.

On March 10, 1974 she was elected for the first time as a candidate for the Christelijk Volkspartij (CVP) as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies . She was a member of this group for 21 years until April 12, 1995, where she represented the Arrondissement of Antwerp . As such, she was a member of the cultural council of the Dutch cultural community (Cultuurraad voor de Nederlandse Cultuurgemeenschap) until 1980 and then of the successor organization Flemish Council (Vlaamse Raad) , which later became the Flemish Parliament (Vlaamse Parlement) . In addition, she was involved in local politics for several years and was a member of the Zoersel municipal council between 1982 and 1992 .

On November 28, 1985, Wivina Demeester became State Secretary for Public Health and Disability Policy to the Minister for Social Affairs and Institutional Reforms Jean-Luc Dehaene in the sixth government of Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and she also held this position in the seventh and eighth Martens governments until 18. September 1988. At the same time she was responsible for the National Fund for Social Reintegration for the Disabled and as such reported to the Minister for Employment and Labor, Michel Hansenne . As part of a reorganization of the eighth Martens government, she took over the position of State Secretary for Finance from Herman Van Rompuy on September 18, 1988, and was thus the closest collaborator of Finance Minister Philippe Maystadt until September 29, 1991 .

After the formation of the ninth Martens government on September 29, 1991, she was made Minister for Budget and Science Policy by Prime Minister Martens and held this position until her resignation on January 21, 1992.

Minister and Member of Parliament in Flanders

After her resignation, Wivina Demeester moved to the government of Flanders on January 21, 1992 . This was preceded by the poor performance of the Martens government in the November 24, 1991 elections. Although the coalition was able to retain its majority, it suffered losses. The elections, in which the right-wing radical Vlaams Blok received numerous votes, went down in history, especially in Flanders, as “Black Sunday” (Zwarte Zondag) . In addition to her, the Minister for Employment and Labor Luc Van den Brande and the State Secretary for Pensions Leona Detiège also withdrew from the outgoing national government in order to join the Flemish government, in which Van den Brande became Prime Minister.

Van den Brande then appointed Wivina Demeester as Minister of Finance and Budget in the Government of Flanders on February 21, 1992 and she held both functions until July 13, 1999. At the same time, she was Flemish Minister of the Interior and Minister of Welfare and Welfare between 1992 and 1995 Family and then Minister of Health of Flanders between 1995 and 1999.

After leaving the Belgian Chamber of Deputies, she was briefly a member of the Flemish Parliament in 1995, to which she was a member again from 1999 to 2004 after leaving the Flemish government. In addition, she was again a member of the municipal council of Zoersel from 2001 to 2006.

Withdrawal from political life and other involvement

Wivina Demeester, who for their political merits of the Knight's Cross of the Order of Leopold was awarded, became involved after they have left the policy, including for people with intellectual disabilities and is a member of the Board of the University Hospital of the University of Antwerp .

In addition, she is involved in numerous building projects and facilities in Antwerp, such as the Oosterweelverbinding to improve the traffic situation on the Antwerp Ring, and is a board member of the international art center deSingel and the banking group Dexia .

From 2004 to 2013 she was chairwoman of the Flemish Institute for Health Promotion and Prevention (Vlaams Instituut voor Gezondheidspromotie en Ziektepreventie) and received an honorary doctorate from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven on September 29, 2006 . In May 2011, she became chair of the Christian think tank Logia .

Web links

• Entry on the homepage of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies