Joëlle Milquet

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Joëlle Milquet (2004)

Joëlle FGM Milquet (born February 16, 1961 in Montignies-sur-Sambre / Charleroi ) is a Belgian politician of the Center Démocrate Humaniste (cdH). She has been a parliamentarian for many years and was Deputy Prime Minister in the federal government from 2008 to 2014 . Until her resignation in April 2016, Milquet was Vice Prime Minister and Minister of Education, Family and Culture of the French Community . The Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) became the cdH under its chairmanship (1999 to 2011), whereby the reference to the Christian orientation was dropped. At the local level, Joëlle Milquet has been a councilor in Brussels since 2006 .

Life

Joëlle Milquet spent her childhood in Montignies-sur-Sambre. Her father, who died when she was 6 years old, and her mother were both French teachers. In 1979 she graduated from the Institut des Dames de St-André in Charleroi and then studied law at the Université catholique de Louvain (UCL) and at the Europa Instituut of the University of Amsterdam . From 1985 to 1992, Milquet was admitted to the bar in Brussels, but at the same time worked in several other professions, such as trainee lawyer at the European Court of Justice or assistant to the chair for family law at UCL.

In 1987, Joëlle Milquet was hired as parliamentary assistant to the Parti Social Chrétien (PSC) group and in March 1990 became political secretary of the PSC group in the Senate . A year later she moved to the cabinet of Michel Lebrun (PSC), the then Minister of the French Community for higher education, scientific research, international relations and youth welfare.

Milquet made her entry into active politics in 1995 when she was elected to the municipal council of Woluwe-Saint-Pierre / Sint-Pieters-Woluwe and a little later to the Senate. Within the party, after chairman Gérard Deprez ( MR ) left the PSC, she initially became vice-president under Charles-Ferdinand Nothomb and Philippe Maystadt (PSC). After the PSC as the governing party suffered an election defeat in 1999, among other things because of the " Dutroux affair" (pedophile scandal ) and the dioxin crisis (dioxin-poisoned food), Milquet was finally elected President of the PSC after the party was elected. A renewal process was initiated under her chairmanship, which in 2002 led to the renaming of the party in Center Démocrate Humaniste (cdH). Since the previous reference to the Christian orientation was dropped, various ex-PSC members subsequently founded a Christian Democratic splinter party, the Chrétiens Démocrates Francophones (CDF).

At the federal level, Milquet led the CDH delegation in 2007 in the negotiations on the formation of a federal government . In the resulting Leterme I government under Prime Minister Yves Leterme ( CD&V ), she was appointed Vice Prime Minister and Employment Minister in March 2008. She continued to perform these functions in the subsequent governments of Van Rompuy and Leterme II . In accordance with the federal elections of June 13, 2010 and the subsequent political crisis of educated over 541 days Government Di Rupo under Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo ( PS ) was Milquet Minister of the Interior. She had already handed over the party chairmanship to Benoît Lutgen in 2011 .

After the parliamentary elections on May 25, 2014 , the cdH went into opposition at the federal level, but was involved in government in the Walloon Region , the Brussels-Capital Region and the French Community. Joëlle Milquet thus lost her federal mandate and became Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Education, Culture and Childhood in the government of the French Community under Prime Minister Rudy Demotte (PS). During the election campaign, the news magazine Le Vif / L'Express published an article in which Milquet was accused of hiring and deploying various staff members mainly for election campaign purposes. An examining magistrate then initiated proceedings against the minister. On April 11, 2016, when it became known that the Attorney General's office would file a lawsuit against Milquet for taking advantage , she resigned.

At the local level, Joëlle Milquet has been a member of the Parliament of the Brussels Capital Region since 2006 . From 2006 until its designation as Deputy Prime Minister in 2008, she was also First Deputy mayor (Assistant) of the city of Brussels ..

Joëlle Milquet is married and has four children.

controversy

Joëlle Milquet proved to be extremely strong-willed, especially during her time as president of the cdH. During the formation of the federal government in 2007, it opposed a state reform desired by the majority of the Flemish parties, which made it much more difficult for a new government to come about . In particular in the Flemish part of the country she was given the nickname “Madame Non” (“Woman No”). She also took harsh attitudes towards party colleagues: Milquet publicly announced that the plan to distribute the flight routes over Brussels , which increasingly diverted planes taking off from Brussels-Zaventem airport via the more densely populated urban area of ​​Brussels, was a "mistake" of the then State Secretary Melchior Wathelet (cdH), who probably cost the party the 2014 election victory. Wathelet, a well-known party member and long-standing mandate, then withdrew completely from politics.

Milquet was also accused of being particularly active in seeking votes from voters with a migration background. She defended Mahinur Özdemir (cdH), who was the first Belgian MP to appear veiled in the Brussels Parliament. When Özdemir refused to acknowledge the Armenian genocide and expulsion proceedings were initiated against them in 2015, Milquet was absent from the board meeting.

In May 2014, media reported that the son of a federal minister was involved in a gangbang during a school trip, but attempts were made to cover it up; instead, the fifteen-year-old girl was portrayed as a disturbed nymphomaniac . For reasons of the protection of minors, the Belgian media withheld the name of the politician. However, the MP Laurent Louis ( PP ) "revealed" that it was the son of Joëlle Milquet.

Overview of political offices

Web links

Commons : Joëlle Milquet  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Lalibre.be: Les moments marquants de la carrière de Joëlle Milquet (April 11, 2016) (French).
  2. ↑ Levif.be: Les étranges collaborateurs de Milquet (February 6, 2014) (French).
  3. ↑ Lalibre.be: Un juge d'instruction enquête sur la campagne électorale de Joëlle Milquet (April 29, 2015) (French).
  4. ↑ Lesoir.be: Inculpée dans le dossier des collaborateurs fantômes, Milquet démissionne (April 11, 2016) (French).
  5. ↑ Levif.be: Joëlle Milquet, la dame de fer du cdH (April 11, 2016) (French).
  6. ↑ HLN.be: Joëlle Milquet, van partijvernieuwer dead "Madame Non" (April 11, 2016) (Dutch).
  7. ↑ Lesoir.be: Milquet: “Sans l'erreur de Wathelet, on partait gagnant” (May 26, 2014) (French).
  8. ↑ Lavenir.net: Melchior Wathelet n'est plus en politique (April 11, 2015) (French).
  9. ↑ Lemonde.fr: En Belgique, Mahinur Özdemir a relancé le débat sur le voile islamique (June 30, 2009) (French).
  10. ↑ Lalibre.be: Joëlle Milquet absente lors du vote contre Özdemir (December 16, 2015) (French).
  11. ↑ Levif.be: Joëlle Milquet, la bombe à retardement (June 17, 2015) (French).
  12. ↑ HLN.be: Zoon van federale minister betrokken bij seksschandaal (May 7, 2014) (Dutch).
  13. ↑ 20min.ch: Le fils d'une ministre mêlé à un scandale sexuel (May 7, 2014) (French).
personal data
SURNAME Milquet, Joëlle
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Milquet, Joëlle FGM
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician
DATE OF BIRTH February 16, 1961
PLACE OF BIRTH Charleroi