Marie Arena

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Marie Arena (2018)

Marie Arena (born December 17, 1966 in Mons ) is a Belgian politician of the Parti Socialiste (PS). She was Minister of the Walloon Region and by 2009 a federal minister. After Laurette Onkelinx she was the second Prime Minister of the French Community . After the regional elections in 2009, she was replaced in the federal government, from then on she acted as a federal senator . Arena has been a member of the European Parliament since 2014 .

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Marie Arena has Italian roots - her father came from Sicily as a miner . However, by her own admission, she has only weak connections to her family's homeland. She holds a degree in economics from the Facultés universitaires catholiques de Mons (FUCaM). Before embarking on her political career, she was a civil servant at the Walloon employment office (Forem) for almost ten years from 1990.

Arena is divorced and has two children.

Political career

Marie Arena has been a member of the Parti Socialiste (PS) since 1998 . Her political career began in 1999 when she started working in the cabinet of the then Walloon Minister for Employment and Training, Michel Daerden (PS).

Although hardly known to the public, she was proposed by party president Elio Di Rupo in 2000 as Walloon Minister for Employment and Education to the government under Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe (PS). She stayed there until 2003 when she moved to the federal government of Verhofstadt II under Guy Verhofstadt ( VLD ) and became Minister for Public Office, Social Integration, Large Cities, Equal Opportunities and Intercultural Dialogue.

After the regional elections in 2004, she moved to the community level, where, after Laurette Onkelinx (PS), she became the second Prime Minister of the French Community from 2004 to 2008 and at the same time held the office of Walloon Minister for Education. However, her prime ministry turned out to be quite unfortunate: the fact that she had an allegedly overpriced shower installed in her cabinet turned the media and public opinion into a scandal. A decree called the “Arena Decree” in the French community and which was intended to promote a social mix (French: mixité sociale ) in French-speaking schools caused a stir: parents formed meter-long queues in front of the “elite schools” Capital to enroll their children there in good time; they had to spend the night unprotected in the winter cold.

In 2008, Arena left the premiership of the French Community Rudy Demotte (PS) to federal minister for pensions, social inclusion and major cities in the Leterme I Government under Yves Leterme ( CD & V ) to be. She had already handed over her Walloon ministerial post to Marc Tarabella (PS) in 2007 . In her new office she had, among other things, a sharp argument with her government colleague, Minister for Migration and Asylum Policy Annemie Turtelboom ( Open VLD ), who, unlike Arena, preferred a rigid stance on the problem of so-called " sans papiers ".

As for local politics, Arena moved first from Mons to Chimay and then to Binche just before the 2000 municipal council elections . In the elections, the PS lost ten seats and Arena had to press the opposition bench. In the municipal council elections of 2006, Arena was able to win three more seats as the top candidate and it gave the PS a majority again. Even before the end of the legislative period, Arena caused a stir in 2008 when she relocated again (to Forest / Vorst in the Brussels-Capital Region ) and thus had to resign from the Binche municipal council.

After the regional elections in 2009, the federal government, which in the meantime was led by Herman Van Rompuy ( CD&V ), was replaced (see Van Rompuy government ). Arena had to hand over its ministerial post to Michel Daerden (PS), who came from the Walloon Region. Arena then worked again as a federal parliamentarian. She left the Chamber of Deputies in 2010 , to which she had belonged since 2003, and was elected to the Senate.

In the 2014 European elections , Arena won a mandate for the European Parliament .

Overview of their political offices

  • 1999–2000: Cabinet advisor (Minister of the Walloon Region for Employment, Training and Housing)
  • 2000–2003: Minister for Employment and Training in the Walloon Region
  • 2000–2008: City council member in Binche
  • 2003–2004: Federal Minister for the Public Office, Social Integration, Large Cities, Equal Opportunities and Intercultural Dialogue in the Verhofstadt II government
  • 2003–2010: Member of the federal Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
  • 2004–2008: Prime Minister of the French Community , responsible for education and training; also Minister of Education for the Walloon Region
  • 2008–2009: Federal Minister for Pensions, Social Inclusion and Large Cities in the Leterme I and Van Rompuy governments
  • 2010–2014: Senator
  • since 2014: Member of the European Parliament

Web links

Commons : Marie Arena  - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ DH.be: La longue saga qui a fait tanguer Marie Arena December 24, 2004 (French)
  2. ↑ Lalibre.be: Le décret qui fâche November 30, 2007 (French)
  3. ↑ Het Nieuwsblad.be: Duel tussen Arena en Turtelboom naar climax July 16, 2009 (ndl.)
  4. ↑ Lesoir.be: Marie Arena quitte Binche pour Forest March 5, 2008 (French)
personal data
SURNAME Arena, Marie
BRIEF DESCRIPTION Belgian politician and minister, MEP
DATE OF BIRTH 17th December 1966
PLACE OF BIRTH Mons