Daniel Ducarme

Daniel Ducarme (born March 8, 1954 in Liège ; † August 28, 2010 ) was a Belgian politician of the Mouvement Réformateur party (MR). Ducarme was a long-time parliamentarian (sometimes in the European Parliament and in the Chamber of Deputies ) and, among other things, Prime Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region from 2003 to 2004. As party president in 2002, he was the founder of the MR, which succeeded the PRL-FDF-MCC Federation. However, Ducarme was forced to step down from most offices in 2004 after it was revealed that he had not paid taxes for years. At the local level, Ducarme was first mayor of Thuin and later a councilor in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek . In 2002 he received the honorary title of Minister of State .

Life

Daniel Ducarme, from Clavier bei Huy , obtained his diploma as a social assistant at the Institut Supérieur d'Etudes Sociales de l'Etat (IESE) in Brussels . While still a student, he was elected national chairman of liberal students in 1974 and was the organizer of the first congress of European liberal students. In 1976 he went into active politics as an advisor to the MEP and then chairman of the Francophone Liberals (PLPW), André Damseaux . When the successor party PRLW ( Parti des réformes et de la liberté de Wallonie ) was founded, which arose from a merger of the Liberals with the Walloon regionalists of the Rassemblement Wallon (RW), Ducarme took over the management of some internal party offices (internal arbitration committee).

In 1979, Daniel Ducarme stood for the first time for election to the European Parliament, but remained only a substitute candidate. With Louis Michel (MR) he wrote the manifesto Le Défi Vert (Eng. The green challenge) at that time , in which the future of the rural and agricultural areas was discussed. In 1981 Ducarme finally made the leap into national politics and became a member of the Chamber of Deputies and at the same time parliamentary group leader in the Council of the French Community . The following year, Ducarme was elected to Thuin's council.

After a brief stay in the European Parliament (1984 to 1985), Daniel Ducarme returned to Belgian politics as Environment and Agriculture Minister in the Walloon government, chaired by Prime Minister Melchior Wathelet ( PSC ) (1985 to 1988). After the PRL was pushed into the opposition at the Walloon level, he took over the role of group leader. In 1988 Ducarme was also able to fight for the mayor's office in Thuin.

From 1992 to 1995 Ducarme was the vice-presidency of the Chamber of Deputies. From 1995 he was group leader of the opposition PRL- FDF in the Parliament of the French Community, before he returned to the European Parliament in 1999, where he was elected Quaestor.

Within the party, Ducarme ran for the chairmanship in 1989, but lost to Antoine Duquesne (PRL), who was favored by Jean Gol (PRL) and the party leadership. Since Ducarme could count on a relatively broad support of the party base, he was appointed Vice President of the PRL and held this office for three years. Around ten years later, in 1999, after the resignation of Louis Michel, he was elected ad interim party president and finally president of the PRL and the PRL-FDF- MCC Federation. As party president he wanted to unite the three components of the federation under one name. With his first unfortunate proposal to found a Parti Démocratique (PD) based on the American model, he failed. On March 24, 2002, however, he succeeded in this undertaking with the name Mouvement Réformateur (MR) and the party manifesto from his pen was approved by the party on September 1, 2002 in Rochefort .

In 2003, Ducarme surprisingly resigned from the chairmanship of the MR party to become Prime Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region and Minister of Culture of the French Community. In fact, he moved to Brussels in 2000 and has been a member of the Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek council since then. Ducarme, however, was forced to resign from most of his political offices on February 12, 2004 after it became known that he had not filed a tax return for years and that he was threatened with proceedings by the tax authorities, which reclaimed 265,000 euros. He himself asserted that the backlog was due to his lengthy divorce procedure.

After this affair things got quieter for Daniel Ducarme, who despite everything was able to defend his seat in the Chamber of Deputies in the federal elections in 2007. In the same year he got into the headlines when he said that he no longer believed in the future of the Belgian state in its current form and that he was in favor of a cooperation with France under the name Belgique française (German "French Belgium"). In the federal elections in 2010, Ducarme no longer took part due to his health.

Daniel Ducarme died on August 28, 2010 after suffering from cancer for many years at the age of 56, leaving behind his wife and four children, of whom Denis Ducarme and Lucas Ducarme are also politically active (both MR).

Honors

Daniel Ducarme was Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold and Honorary Vice-President of the Chamber of Deputies and Honorary Mayor of Thuin. On January 28, 2002 he was awarded the honorary title of "Minister of State".

Overview of political offices

• 1981–1984: Member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Council of the Walloon Region
• 1982–2000: Member of the Thuin local council
• 1984–1985: Member of the European Parliament
• 1985–1995: Member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Walloon Parliament (partially prevented)
• 1985–1988: Minister of the Environment and Agriculture of the Walloon Region
• 1988–2000: Mayor of Thuin
• 1995–1999: Member of the Walloon Parliament and the Parliament of the French Community
• 1999–2003: Member of the European Parliament
• 2000–2006: Member of the local council in Schaerbeek / Schaarbeek
• 2003–2010: Member of the Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
• 2003–2004: Prime Minister of the Brussels-Capital Region and Minister of the French Community for Art, Literature and Media

Web links

• Official website of Daniel Ducarme
• Obituary for the death of Daniel Ducarme on the official website of the MR
• Entry on Daniel Ducarme in the European Parliament 's database of deputies

Individual evidence

1. ↑ The Manifeste des Réformateurs is on the official website ( Memento of the original of March 26, 2007 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. the MR can be seen. Lesoir.be (archive): PRL + FDF ​​+ MCC = MR? Dites «Mouvement réformateur» (March 5, 2002) (French) 
2. ↑ Lalibre.be: Un cumul de fâcheux "oublis" fiscaux (February 12, 2004) (French); Lalibre.be: Le MR face à la tourmente , (February 13, 2004) (French)
3. ↑ Biography on the official website  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. by Daniel Ducarme.  
4. ↑ Lalibre.be: Ducarme invente la "Belgique française" (December 15, 2007) (French)
5. ↑ Lesoir.be: Nombreux hommages à Daniel Ducarme, un «rassembleur» (August 28, 2010) (French)