Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe

Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe, 2005.

Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe (born April 28, 1944 in Charleroi ), sometimes abbreviated to Van Cau , is a Belgian politician of the Parti Socialiste (PS). He was Prime Minister of the Walloon Region from 2000 to 2005 . Van Cauwenberghe was accused in the course of the so-called "Carolorégienne Affair" of having exerted influence in the embezzlement of public funds in Charleroi. Although he was never prosecuted, he resigned from his post as Prime Minister on September 30, 2005 under pressure from public opinion.

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Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe is the son of André Van Cauwenberghe , who made a career as a politician with the Parti Socialiste and was State Secretary under the government of Pierre Harmel from 1965 to 1966 . His mother was a nurse. Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe himself studied at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where he received his doctorate in law .

Van Cauwenberghe is a widower and father of two children. His son Philippe Van Cauwenberghe is also politically active in the PS and is a councilor in Charleroi.

Political career

Van Cauwenberghe began his political career with the “Jeunes Socialistes” (similar to the Jusos in Germany), whose national president he became in 1965. During his student days he worked in the cabinet of the then Interior Minister Lucien Harmegnies (PSB). This was particularly active in the "Mouvement populaire wallon" (Walloon people's movement), a political association of the Walloon movement .

In 1977 Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe was elected MP, but he resigned in 1983 to become Mayor of Charleroi. He officially held this office until 2000. Following the regional elections in 1995, he was appointed Minister of Budget and Finance for the Walloon Region and the French Community .

After the 1999 elections, he also took up the post of Minister of Finance and Minister of Public Works in the Walloon Region, but after Elio Di Rupo (PS) decided in 2000 to take up his post as Mayor of Mons , Van replaced him Cauwenberghe headed the Walloon government and became Prime Minister of the Walloon Region.

After the regional elections in 2004, Van Cauwenberghe took up his second term as prime minister, but in September 2005 the local politician from Charleroi Olivier Chastel ( MR ) started the so-called "Carolorégienne affair". This involved massive embezzlement of public funds, including the award of public contracts for the social housing association “La Carolorégienne”. The administrators of this housing association, André Liesse and Claude Despiegeleer , were also aldermen of the Charleroi municipality and a member of the PS, which had had an absolute majority in the Charleroi city council since 1977. Due to the close friendship between Van Cauwenberghe and the two aldermen and a number of uncovered crimes that had taken place during Van Cauwenberghe's tenure as Mayor of Charleroi, Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe had to bow to pressure from public opinion and the media: he submitted on September 30, 2005 his resignation as Walloon Prime Minister.

As a result, Van Cauwenberghe was still active as a simple regional representative, as a city representative in Charleroi and as chairman of the Regional Socialist Association (USC) in Charleroi. But again and again new affairs in Charleroi were uncovered in the years 2006 to 2007, whereby Van Cauwenberghe, even after a police search of his house, was never brought before a court. So he let it be known: “Accusé de tout, mais inculpé de rien” (always accused, never accused). However, there was talk of political influence, as in the "Immo Congo affair", and of a real "Van Cau system" in Charleroi. Van Cauwenberghe was also one of the members of parliament who flew to California on a business trip with the President of the Walloon Parliament José Happart in April 2009 ; this trip was particularly noticeable in the context of the global economic crisis in the media and among the population.

Pressure from public opinion persisted and in 2007 Van Cauwenberghe was expelled from the Parti Socialiste's national office, in which he had been represented since the 1970s, and was unable to run for the 2009 regional elections on the PS lists. Since then, Van Cauwenberghe has gradually disappeared from public life.

On May 3, 2010, it became known that Van Cauwenberghe had been charged with passive corruption. He was accused of preferring personal friends when awarding public contracts. Van Cauwenberghe denied this. In the course of the various judicial proceedings against him, he was ultimately declared innocent due to a lack of evidence.

Overview of political offices

• 1977–1983: Member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies (and thus also of the Walloon Parliament and the Parliament of the French Community )
• 1983–2000: Mayor of Charleroi (partially prevented)
• 1995–2009: Member of the Walloon Parliament (partially prevented)
• 1995–1999: Minister of the Walloon Region, responsible for budget, finance, employment and training; Minister of the French Community, responsible for budget, finance and public services
• 1999–2000: Minister of the Walloon Region, responsible for budget, equipment and public works
• 2000–2005: Prime Minister of the Walloon Region
• 2000–2006: Charleroi councilor

Web links

• Entry on Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe in the Dictionnaire des Wallons

Individual evidence

1. ↑ DH.be: Exemple de gestion scandaleuse (September 6, 2005) (French)
2. ↑ Lalibre.be: Van Cauwenberghe démissionne (September 30, 2005) (French)
3. ↑ DH.be: Van Cau met la pression (June 25, 2007) (French)
4. ↑ LeVif.be: Van Cau: double soupçon de trafic d'influence  ( 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.   (January 7, 2009) (French)
5. ↑ Lesoir.be: Le voyage des députés wallons en Californie passe mal (April 5, 2009) (French)
6. ↑ Lalibre.be: Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe inculpé de corruption passive (May 3, 2010) (French)
7. ↑ RTBF.be: Charleroi: Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe acquitté dans le dossier Sodexo (23 May 2016) (French)