Melchior Wathelet (Junior)

Melchior Wathelet (January 2014)

Melchior Wathelet or Melchior Wathelet Junior (born September 30, 1977 in Verviers ) is a Belgian politician of the Center Démocrate Humaniste (cdH). He had been a federal member of parliament since 2003 , but resigned his political mandate in 2015 and switched to the private sector. In the federal government of Di Rupo, Wathelet last held the post of interior minister in 2014. Before that, he was State Secretary for the Environment, Energy, Mobility and Institutional Reforms. Wathelet was also active as a local politician in Verviers.

Life

Melchior Wathelet Junior (who himself rejects the Junior in his name) is the son of Melchior Wathelet (senior) , politician of the PSC (today CDH) and former Belgian Minister of Justice and Defense , Prime Minister of the Walloon Region and judge at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) . The first name Melchior has been given to the firstborn son in the Wathelet family for generations. The first son of Melchior Wathelet Junior, the second of three children, also bears this first name.

Wathelet studied law (candidacy at the Facultés universitaires Notre-Dame de la Paix (FUNDP) in Namur and license at the Université Catholique de Louvain (UCL) in New Leuven ) and in 2001 completed a master's degree in European law at the University of Southampton . In 2002 he registered as a lawyer in his hometown of Verviers.

Melchior Wathelet Junior experienced his political entry in 2003, when he was elected to the federal Chamber of Deputies - also thanks to his well-known name. There he had to press the opposition bench with the cdH for a legislative period. In 2004 he was able to work his way up to chairman of the parliamentary group and second vice-president of the cdH.

When the majority situation changed after the federal elections of 2007 and the cdH - after a long government crisis during which Wathelet negotiated with Joëlle Milquet for the cdH - became part of the government, he was initially given the office of federal state secretary for budget and family policy in the Leterme I government under Prime Minister Yves Leterme ( CD&V ), and in the government under Herman Van Rompuy (CD&V), after a reshuffle, also the responsibilities for migration, asylum policy and federal cultural institutions. He retained these responsibilities in the successor government, Leterme II. In 2011, he became State Secretary for the Environment, Energy, Mobility and Institutional Reforms in the Di Rupo government.

Wathelet hit the headlines in February 2014 after launching a route distribution plan over Brussels that increasingly rerouted planes departing from Brussels-Zaventem Airport via the more urban, more populated area of ​​Brussels. The "Plan Wathelet" sparked a major controversy in Belgian politics shortly before the federal elections on May 25, 2014 . Even within the cdH there was talk of a mistake that could have cost the party its election victory.

From July to October 2014, Melchior Wathelet was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior in the federal government under Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo ( PS ) after Joëlle Milquet moved to the government of the French Community . He handed over the office of State Secretary to Catherine Fonck (cdH).

On April 10, 2015, Melchior Wathelet announced his immediate resignation from politics. He switched to the private sector, where he took the post of CEO at Xperthis, a company that provides IT solutions for the healthcare sector.

At the local level, Melchior Wathelet has been represented on the Verviers municipal council since 2006.

Overview of political offices

• 2003–2015: Member of the federal Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
• 2006–2015: Member of the Verviers municipal council
• 2007–2008: Federal State Secretary for the Budget and Family Policy in the Leterme I government
• 2008–2011: Federal State Secretary for the budget and family policy, later also migration, asylum policy and federal cultural institutions in the Van Rompuy and Leterme II governments
• 2011–2014: Federal State Secretary for the Environment, Energy, Mobility and Institutional Reforms in the Di Rupo government
• 2014: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of the Interior and Equal Opportunities in the Di Rupo government

Web links

Commons : Melchior Wathelet  - Collection of Images

• Profile of Melchior Wathelet (Junior) on the Belgian Chamber of Deputies website

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lesoir.be: Milquet: “Sans l'erreur de Wathelet, on partait gagnant” (May 26, 2014) (French).
2. ↑ RTBF.be: C. Fonck (cdH) reprend les compétences de M. Wathelet au fédéral (July 22, 2014) (French).
3. ↑ Lalibre.be: Melchior Wathelet (CDH) abandonne ses mandats politiques (April 10, 2015) (French).