Louis Tobback

Louis Tobback, 2007

Tobback during the opening speech at Leuven in Scene, 2008

Louis Marie Joseph Tobback (born May 3, 1938 in Leuven ) is a Belgian politician for the Socialist Partij Anders (sp.a).

Life

In 1962 Tobback graduated from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel with a degree in Romance Studies and then taught French for a while at the Koninklijk Atheneum in Leuven.

He began his political career in 1965 in the council of the public welfare center in Leuven, where he was a member until 1970. In 1971 he was elected to the Löwener city council and appointed first aldermen . In the 1974 elections he was elected a member of the Belgian Chamber of Deputies . In this role he was chairman of the SP parliamentary group (today sp.a) from 1979 to 1988.

From 1988 Tobback was Minister of the Interior in the Martens VIII , IX and Dehaene I governments and resigned from this office in 1994 to take over the chairmanship of the Socialist Party. When his successor Johan Vande Lanotte resigned from office in April 1998 because of the Dutroux scandal, Tobback was reappointed Minister of the Interior, but had to resign himself in September 1998 after the Nigerian asylum seeker Semira Adamu died when she was expelled . which led to violent protests in Belgium.

Tobback was Senator in the Belgian Senate from 1991 to 2003 and Mayor of Leuven from September 1995 to December 2018 . His son Bruno Tobback was also Minister for the sp.a.

literature

• Louis Tobback: Dwarsgedachten. Louis Tobback in geprek met Jan Lippens , Polis: Kalmthout, 2019, ISBN 978-94-631-0401-2

Web links

Commons : Louis Tobback  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files

• Tobback's page on the homepage of the Belgian Senate (Dutch)
• Page about Tobback on the homepage of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (Dutch)