Michel Daerden

Michel Daerden

Michel Daerden (born November 16, 1949 in Baudour , † August 5, 2012 in Fréjus , France ) was a Belgian politician ( Parti Socialiste ).

Life

Michel Daerden holds a degree in business and economics (Hautes Etudes Commerciales Liège (HEC - now part of the ULg ), 1971), admitted to upper secondary education in commercial science (HEC-Liège, 1973), and holds a degree in applied economics (Mons State University, 1975) and Licensed Company Auditor (Mons State University, 1977). He had owned a company auditor since 1976, but had not been active as an auditor himself since 1994.

On July 26, 2012, Michel Daerden suffered a heart attack and was placed in an artificial coma at the hospital in Fréjus on the French Côte d'Azur , where he was spending his vacation. He finally died on August 5, 2012 as a result of this heart attack.

Daerden was the father of three children. His daughter Aurore Daerden is a stylist and DJ in Paris . His son Frédéric Daerden is also a works auditor and politician of the PS (Mayor of Herstal and member of the European Parliament ).

Political career

Daerden grew up in a socialist family, but his political career only began as an advisor to the powerful politician and leader of the Liège PS André Cools . Michel Daerden first spent a few years as a council member of Ans , a member of parliament and a senator . In the internal dispute between the Lütticher PS, which took place in the late 1980s and early 1990s between Cools and his opponents (including Dehousse , Happart , Mathot and Van der Biest ), however, Daerden had already distanced himself from his political foster father and tried to create a to take a neutral position. Therefore he was able to get to the leadership of the Liège Federation of the PS, with the task of calming the minds.

In 1994, towards the end of the legislative period, Daerden was then appointed to the Dehaene I government under Jean-Luc Dehaene as Minister for Scientific Research and as the successor to Jean-Maurice Dehousse (PS), who had accepted the mayoral mandate in Liège . In the Dehaene II government from 1995 to 1999, Daerden took over the transport department. There he had to take care of the planning of the high-speed routes to the Netherlands and Germany ( HSL 4 and HSL 3 ) or the takeover of the national airline Sabena by Swissair .

After the 1999 elections, Michel Daerden moved first to the regional and later to the community level. Until 2009 he was Minister or Vice-Prime Minister of the Walloon Region and the French Community in the governments of Elio Di Rupo , Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe and Rudy Demotte and Hervé Hasquin , Marie Arena and Rudy Demotte, where he had a particular preference for the finances and the budget.

Michel Daerden had been mayor of Ans since 1993, but since 1994 his ministerial function has prevented the effective exercise of his office. It was especially the local elections of 2006, in which he achieved an absolute majority for the PS in Ans with 4150 preferential votes (52.76%), which made him extremely popular throughout Belgium. An interview, which he gave the RTBF in a state of drunkenness, turned into an internet phenomenon and triggered the so-called "Daerdenmania" (see below). Daerden was able to confirm this result in the federal elections in 2007 and in the regional elections in 2009, in which he landed the absolute record of 63,580 preferential votes.

After the regional elections in 2009, however, the coalition of socialists (PS) and center humanists ( cdH ) was expanded to include the Greens ( Ecolo ) at Walloon level . This resulted in some ministers, including Daerden, being forced to leave the regional level. Thus Michel Daerden was appointed federal minister for pensions and cities for the time being in the Van Rompuy I government under Herman Van Rompuy and since November 25, 2009 in the Leterme II government under Prime Minister Yves Leterme .

After giving a speech in Dutch in the Senate on January 8, 2010, in a seemingly intoxicated state, Bart De Wever ( N-VA ) called for his resignation; Daerden protested that he was sober.

When the Di Rupo government was formed , Daerden lost his ministerial post and now met as a simple parliamentarian. On March 16, 2011, a constructive vote of no confidence against him was initiated in his home parish Ans . Daerden thus lost his mandate as mayor and decided to leave Ans and settle in the neighboring municipality of Saint-Nicolas . Nevertheless, he announced that he would run for the office of mayor in view of the local council elections of October 2012.

Michel Daerden was the commander of the Order of the Leopold .

"Daerdenmania" and controversy

Campaign slogan ahead of the federal parliamentary elections on June 13, 2010

The personality of Michel Daerden created a mixed picture in public opinion. In 2006 after his election victory in Ans, Daerden appeared in an apparently drunk state for an interview with the RTBF . This video was circulated a short time later on the Internet and triggered a phenomenon (the so-called "Daerdenmania") that made Daerden extremely popular in French-speaking countries (at home and abroad). Since then he has been referred to in the media as the " Gainsbourg of Politics". Michel Daerden, on the other hand, claimed that his way of speaking - an extremely slow flow of speech with a heavy Liège accent - was due to psychomotor problems and dyslexia .

Daerden was generally seen as an extremely charismatic personality with a great talent for self- presentation. He liked to be close to the people and, for example, led the campaign for the regional elections of 2009 under the slogan “Je vote pour papa” (German: “I vote for papa”), by which he meant himself Music CD on. Daerden also had its own fan club and had numerous followers in social networks .

His critics accused him of acting populist and discrediting the entire political class through his appearance. This is regularly assessed in Flanders in particular. When Daerden disguised as Roman Emperor next to his daughter Aurore, who wore a curvaceous Cleopatra costume, was photographed for Paris Match magazine in December 2009 , he was again criticized in the media and in politics.

His job as a company auditor, which he has not officially exercised since 1994, also gave rise to criticism. The fact that father and son Daerden's office had specialized in working as company auditors in intercommunal (i.e. municipal associations), in which they themselves or political friends of the PS were represented, had sparked an ethical debate about the neutrality of the office.

Overview of political offices

• 1982–2011: City council member in Ans
• 1987–1991: Member of the Federal Chamber of Deputies
• 1988–1995: Member of the Council of the Walloon Region (partially prevented)
• 1991–1993: Alderman in Ans
• 1991–1995: Senator (partially prevented)
• 1993–2011: Mayor of Ans (partially prevented)
• 1994–1995: Federal Minister for Science Policy and Infrastructure in the Dehaene I government
• 1995–1999: Federal Minister for Transport in the Dehaene II government
• 1999–2000: Minister of the Walloon Region in charge of Employment, Training and Housing
• 1995–2009: Member of the federal Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
• 2000–2004: Vice-Prime Minister of the Walloon Region, responsible for finance, budget, housing, equipment and public works
• 2003–2004: Minister of the French Community , responsible for the budget
• 2004–2007: Vice-Prime Minister of the Walloon Region, responsible for finances, budget, equipment and monument protection; Vice-Prime Minister of the French Community, responsible for the budget and finances
• 2007–2009: Vice-Prime Minister of the Walloon Region, responsible for finances, budget and equipment; Vice-Prime Minister of the French Community, responsible for the budget, finances, public office and sport
• 2009–2011: Federal Minister for Pensions and Large Cities in the Van Rompuy and Leterme II governments
• 2009–2012: Member of the Walloon Parliament (partially prevented)

Web links

Commons : Michel Daerden  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

• Entry on Michel Daerden in the Dictionnaire des Wallons

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Lesoir.be: Michel Daerden dans le coma après une crise cardiaque (July 26, 2012) (French)
2. ↑ Lalibre.be: Michel Daerden est décédé (August 5, 2012) (French)
3. ↑ Lalibre.be: Une fédération du PS ardente et turbulente (October 15, 2003) (French)
4. ↑ The results of the local elections in 2006 are available in German on a website for the Walloon Region.
5. ↑ The results of the regional elections 2009 are available in German on the website of the FPS Interior.
6. ↑ De Standaard online: Daerden geeft schertsvertoning in Senaat (January 9, 2010) (ndl.); Lalibre.be: Michel Daerden nie l'ébriété, Di Rupo le soutient (January 9, 2010) (French)
7. ↑ Lalibre.be: Michel Daerden tête de liste à Saint-Nicolas (January 25, 2012) (French)
8. ↑ Lesoir.be: L'alcool de Michel Daerden fait un tabac (October 12, 2006) (French); Libération.fr: Réélu et ivre de joie (October 16, 2006) (French)
9. ↑ DH.be: Daerden, notre Gainsbourg (16 October 2006) (fr.)
10. ↑ DH.be: Un gaucher contrarié! (October 17, 2006) (French)
11. ↑ DH.be: Michel Daerden: son CD est arrivé! (February 27, 2007) (French)
12. ↑ Lalibre.be: Facebook séduit le monde politique (April 24, 2009) (French)
13. ↑ LeVif.be: "Daerden offusque la Flandre, fait rire les Wallons"  ( page no longer available , search in web archives )  Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.   (July 17, 2009) (French); Standaard.be: Waalse clown in federaal circus (July 17, 2009) (ndl.)
14. ↑ Lalibre.be, Jules César Daerden, la polémique (December 5, 2009) (French)
15. ↑ Lalibre.be: La nébuleuse Daerden à Liège (October 3, 2005) (French); Lesoir.be: Révisorat: Daerden aurait favorisé la société de son fils (January 16, 2010) (French)