Charles Michel

Charles Michel (2019)

Charles Michel (born December 21, 1975 in Namur ) is a Belgian politician of the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) party and President of the European Council since December 1, 2019 .

From October 11, 2014 to October 27, 2019, he was Belgian Prime Minister and thus headed the federal government of the Kingdom ( Government Michel I ). On December 18, 2018, he announced his resignation and has since headed a transitional government ( Michel II government ). From 2000 to 2004 he was Walloon Minister of the Interior and from 2007 Federal Minister for Development Cooperation (most recently in the Leterme II government ). However, Michel resigned his office in February 2011 after he was elected chairman of the MR. He was mayor of Wavre since 2006 .

On October 31, 2019, the Belgian King awarded him the honorary title of Minister of State .

Life

Charles Michel is the son of the former Belgian Foreign Minister and EU Commissioner Louis Michel (MR). He studied law at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) and at the University of Amsterdam (UvA). He was admitted to the bar in Brussels in 1998.

Charles Michel began his political activity in 1994 as a provincial member of Walloon Brabant . After the federal and regional elections in 1999, he became a federal member of the Chamber of Deputies . When the Liberals formed a coalition with the Socialists ( PS ) at the Walloon Region level in 1999 , he replaced Jean-Marie Severin (MR) as Minister of Internal Affairs and Public Office in the government under Jean-Claude Van in 2000 Cauwenberghe (PS). After the regional elections in 2004, the MR moved into the opposition at Walloon level and Michel was again a simple federal MP until 2007.

At the local level, Charles Michel joined the Wavre parish council in 2000 . He won the 2006 local elections and became mayor of that city. However, he has not held this post since 2007, the year in which he was appointed federal minister.

After the federal elections in 2007 and the long political crisis, Charles Michel received the post of Minister for Development Cooperation under Guy Verhofstadt ( Open VLD ) and kept him in the subsequent governments under Yves Leterme ( CD&V ) and Herman Van Rompuy (CD&V).

Within MR, Charles Michel belongs to the "Renaissance Group" which, after the federal elections of 2009, in which MR suffered heavy losses, called for the resignation of the then Vice Prime Minister, Finance Minister and MR Chairman Didier Reynders . After the internal party elections, Charles Michel was able to prevail over the chairman of the MR parliamentary group in the Daniel Bacquelaine chamber and took up the presidency of MR on February 14, 2011. As MR chairman, after the early parliamentary elections on June 13, 2010 , Michel took part in the talks on the sixth state reform and the formation of a federal government under the leadership of Elio Di Rupo (PS). He agreed to the division of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency and triggered an internal party conflict with the FDF , which had been part of an electoral alliance with the Francophone Liberals (PRL) since 1992 and had been one of the components of the MR since 2002. On September 25, 2011, the FDF then left the MR. Charles Michel was confirmed as chairman despite the division of the party.

Michel as Prime Minister with Russian President Vladimir Putin (January 2018)

In the federal elections on May 25, 2014 , MR won an election on the Francophone side; the PS and the cdH , on the other hand, suffered slight losses. After the elections, first Bart De Wever ( N-VA ) and then Charles Michel were appointed by the king to inform them . When the possibility of a coalition of N-VA, CD&V, Open VLD and MR emerged, the king commissioned the tandem Charles Michel and Kris Peeters (CD&V) to form a government on July 22, 2014. An agreement was reached on October 7, 2014 after around two and a half months of negotiations. Charles Michel took his oath as Prime Minister on October 11th, becoming the youngest head of government in Belgium at the age of 38; after Paul-Émile Janson, he is only the second French-speaking liberal to hold this post.

From June 11th to 14th, 2015 he took part in the 63rd Bilderberg Conference in Telfs-Buchen , Austria .

On December 18, 2018, Michel announced his resignation due to an impending vote of no confidence in his newly formed minority government . Since then, the Michel II government has been in office, even after the parliamentary elections on May 26, 2019, as no new majority was found.

In July 2019 he was elected President of the European Council and took over from Donald Tusk on December 1, 2019 . Therefore, on October 26, 2019, he announced his withdrawal. On October 27, 2019, the King accepted the resignation of Michel II's government and, at his suggestion, appointed Sophie Wilmès as the new Executive Prime Minister.

Charles Michel is in command of the Order of the Leopold .

Overview of political offices

1994-1999: Provincial Member of the Province of Walloon Brabant
1999 - today : Member of the federal Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
2000 - 2004: Minister of the Interior of the Walloon Region and the Public Office
2000 - today : Member of the Wavre council
2006 - today : Mayor of Wavre (partially prevented)
2007 - 2011: Federal Minister for Development Cooperation in the Verhofstadt III , Leterme I , Van Rompuy and Leterme II governments
2014–2019: Prime Minister
From December 1, 2019: President of the European Council