Leona Detiège

Leona Detiège

Leona Maria Detiège (born November 26, 1942 in Antwerp ) is a Belgian politician of the Belgian Socialist Partij (BSP) and most recently the Socialist Partij (SP), which was both a member of the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Belgium . She was also State Secretary in the eighth and ninth governments of Prime Minister Wilfried Martens and, between 1995 and 2003, Mayor of Antwerp.

Life

Studies, professional activities and members of parliament

Leona Detiège was the daughter of Frans Detiège , who was a member of the Chamber of Deputies between 1947 and 1974, alderman for social affairs from 1947 to 1976 and briefly mayor of Antwerp in 1976.

After attending school, she completed a degree in commercial management and finance at the Antwerp Commercial College (Rijkshandelshogeschool Antwerpen) and graduated with a licentiate . She then worked in a planning office and was the rector of the Émile Vandervelde Adult Education Center in Antwerp, before she worked for the Ministry of Economic Affairs between 1970 and 1974.

Leona Detiège began her political career when she was elected member of the Provincial Council of the Province of Antwerp for the Belgian Socialist Party in 1974 . She was then elected to the Chamber of Deputies for the first time in 1977, where she represented the interests of the Antwerp arrondissement until December 16, 1991 . As such, she was a member of the cultural council of the Dutch cultural community (Cultuurraad voor de Nederlandse Cultuurgemeenschap) until 1980 and then until 1995 of the successor organization Flemish Council (Vlaamse Raad) , which later became the Flemish Parliament (Vlaamse Parlement) .

At the same time he was a member of the Benelux Inter-Parliamentary Council between 1980 and 1988 and a member of the Antwerp District Council from 1983 to 1995. In addition, like her father, she was involved in local politics in Antwerp, and between 1977 and 1982 she was both a member of the municipal council and alderman of Antwerp.

State Secretary, Senator and Minister of the Flemish Government

On May 9, 1988, Leona Detiège was appointed by Prime Minister Wilfried Martens to his eighth government and took over the function of State Secretary for Pensions in this and the subsequent ninth Martens government . As such, until her resignation on January 21, 1992, she was assigned to the then ministers for pensions, Alain Van der Biest and then Gilbert Mottard . For her political merits she was awarded the First Class Citizen Medal on March 1, 1991.

On December 16, 1991 she was elected for the first time as a member of the Belgian Senate and represented the interests of the Antwerp arrondissement until April 12, 1995.

After her resignation, Leona Detiège moved to the government of Flanders on January 21, 1992 . This was preceded by the poor performance of the Martens government in the November 24, 1991 elections. Although the coalition was able to retain its majority, it suffered losses. The elections, in which the right-wing radical Vlaams Blok received numerous votes, went down in history, especially in Flanders, as “Black Sunday” (Zwarte Zondag) . Alongside her, the Minister for Employment and Labor Luc Van den Brande and the Minister for Budget and Science Policy Wivina Demeester withdrew from the outgoing national government in order to join the Flemish government, in which Van den Brande became Prime Minister.

Van den Brande then appointed Leona Detiège on January 21, 1992 as Minister for Employment and Public Health in the Government of Flanders. As part of a government restructuring that followed shortly afterwards, she took over the post of Minister for Employment and Social Affairs on January 30, 1992, and held this position until December 31, 1994.

Mayoress of Antwerp and return to the Senate

In the municipal council elections of October 9, 1994, she was re-elected as a member of the Antwerp Municipal Council and belonged to it until the elections on October 22, 2006.

On January 1, 1995, she succeeded her party friend Bob Cools as mayor of Antwerp. This position was held by Leona Detiège, who was also appointed Commander of the Order of the Leopold on May 19, 1995 for her long service , until her resignation on July 9, 2003. The reason for her resignation was the so-called VISA affair, which involved falsified credit card statements by politicians and employees of the Antwerp municipal administration. He was succeeded on July 10, 2003 by Patrick Janssens .

After she had withdrawn from political life for several years, she became a member of the Senate of Belgium again on October 28, 2012 as the successor to Marleen Temmerman , of which she was a member until May 24, 2014.

Leona Detiège is the mother of Maya Detiège , who has been a member of the Chamber of Deputies since 2003 as a representative of the Socialist Partij Anders (sp.a).

Web links

• Senate homepage
• Entry on the homepage of the Flemish Parliament