Frank Vandenbroucke (politician)

Frank Vandenbroucke (May 1, 2007)

Frank Ignace Georgette Vandenbroucke (born October 21, 1955 in Leuven , Flemish Brabant , Belgium ) is a Belgian politician of the Socialist Partij Anders (sp.a) and was, among other things, Belgium's Foreign Minister .

biography

Promotion to foreign minister and resignation because of the Agusta affair

Frank Vandenbroucke, who came from a family of doctors, first studied economics at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KU Leuven) after attending school and graduated in 1978 with a licentiate . During his studies in 1974 he was one of the organizers of courses on Marxist economic theory . During his studies he began his political activities as a member of the municipal council of Scherpenheuvel-Zichem . After completing his studies, he was a research assistant at the Center for Economic Studies at the KU Leuven between 1978 and 1980. After postgraduate studies in economics at Cambridge University from 1980 to 1982, he worked for the student organization of the Socialist Party until 1985 .

After completing this activity, he was elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1985 and is a member of the Chamber of Deputies until 1996 as a representative of the SP. During this time he was also the successor to Karel Van Miert from 1989 to 1994 chairman of the Socialist Party. The previous Minister of the Interior, Louis Tobback, was successor as party chairman .

On January 23, 1994, Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene appointed him Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister in his cabinet . He held these positions until March 22, 1995 when he resigned because of the Agusta affair , but was not convicted of this. After leaving the cabinet, he was parliamentary group leader of the Socialist Party in the Chamber of Deputies until 1996 .

Between 1996 and 1999 he completed further studies in the Faculty of Social Studies at the University of Oxford .

Return to politics

After his return to Belgium, on July 12, 1999, Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt appointed him Minister for Social Affairs and Pensions in its first government . In the latter's second government , he was Minister for Labor and Pensions between July 12, 2003 and July 18, 2004.

After leaving the Belgian federal government, he was appointed Minister-President of Flanders Yves Leterme as Minister for Labor, Education and Training in the Flemish regional government. Between 2004 and 2009, he was a member of Leterme's successor Kris Peeters as Deputy Prime Minister. He was also a member of the Flemish Parliament from 2009 to July 6, 2010.

For his political merits, Frank Vandenbroucke was awarded the honorary title of Minister of State together with Jos Chabert and Armand De Decker on November 30, 2009 .

In the parliamentary elections on June 13, 2010 , he was elected a member of the Senate .

Web links

Commons : Frank Vandenbroucke  - collection of images, videos and audio files