Patrick Dewael

Patrick Yvonne Hugo Dewael (* 13. October 1955 in Lier ) is a Belgian politician of Party Open Vlaamse Liberals s Democrats (VLD). He was the third Prime Minister of Flanders (1999 to 2003).

Life

Dewael first attended the Koninklijk Atheneum in Tongeren and then went to the Vrije Universiteit Brussel , which he left in 1977 with a degree in law and notary . From 1978 to 1985 he worked as a lawyer .

Dewael began his political career as chairman of the Liberaal Vlaams student union at the VUB (1977). He then became political secretary of the youth association of the Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang and in 1980 worked in the office of his uncle, the former Justice Minister Herman Vanderpoorten .

In 1985 Dewael was elected MP in the Arrondissement of Tongeren-Maaseik and was appointed Minister of Culture in the Flemish Executive (the predecessor of the Flemish Government). He held this office until 1992 and was then a member of the VLD's parliamentary group in the Belgian Chamber of Deputies and thus part of the opposition to the Dehaene I and II governments . After the municipal council elections in 1994, Dewael was appointed Mayor of Tongeren in January 1995 .

Following the CVP's historic defeat in the 1999 elections, a coalition of VLD, SP , Agalev and VU&ID was formed in Flanders , with Dewael as prime minister. In May 2003 Dewael ran for the VLD in the constituency of Limburg and after his election left the Flemish government to take over the office of Interior Minister and Vice Prime Minister in the Verhofstadt II government .

As Prime Minister of Flanders, Dewael was appointed on January 22, 2002 by the Council of the European Union as a member of the Committee of the Regions for the term of office from January 26, 2002 to January 25, 2006. In this capacity he participated as an observer for the Committee of the Regions in the European Convention for the drafting of the European Constitutional Treaty.

From March to December 2008 Dewael was Deputy Prime Minister and Interior Minister in the Leterme I government . He then replaced the newly appointed Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy as President of the Chamber of Deputies. On July 20, 2010, he was voted out of office due to the defeat of the Open VLD and handed over the chairmanship of the chamber to André Flahaut ( PS ). After the federal elections in 2014 , he was re-elected ad interim President of the Chamber of Deputies on June 30, 2014. With the establishment of the new center-right coalition in mid-October 2014, the N-VA politician Siegfried Bracke took over the office of chamber chairman. He has been President of Parliament for the third time since June 2019.

As part of the formation of the government after the 2019 parliamentary election , King Philippe commissioned him on February 19, 2020, together with Sabine Laruelle , the chairman of the Senate , to carry out a new mediation mission.

family

Dewael comes from a liberal background. His grandfather is Arthur Vanderpoorten and Marleen Vanderpoorten is his cousin.

He was married to the lawyer Marleen Van Doren with whom he has two sons and a daughter. After Koen Meulenaere - journalist for the magazine Knack - reported in his column Kwaad Bloed about an affair between Dewael and VRT journalist Greet Op de Beeck, Dewael announced in a press release on August 24, 2005 that he was divorcing. On a professional level, however, he and Greet Op de Beeck always kept the necessary distance.

Awards (excerpt)

• Large Silver Decoration on Ribbon for Services to the Republic of Austria (2002)

Publications

• Eelt op mijn Ziel , Antwerp 2007, ISBN 978-90-5240-962-7
• Het Vlaams Manifesto - Meer ruimte voor regio’s , Leuven 2002, ISBN 90-5617-416-9
• Wederzijds respect - De gevaren van het Blok , Antwerp 2001, ISBN 90-5240-639-1
• Vooruitzien - Ideenën over een kleurrijk Vlaanderen , 2001
• De warm hand - Cultuur maakt het verschil , Löwen 1991, ISBN 90-6303-377-X

Web links

• official homepage

Individual evidence

1. ↑  ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) sueddeutsche.de
2. ↑ Lesoir.be: André Flahaut élu président de la Chambre (20 July 2010) (fr.)
3. ↑ Lesoir.be: Patrick Dewael (VLD) élu président de la Chambre (June 30, 2014) (French)
4. ↑ Siegfried Bracke designs à la présidence de la Chambre . In: 7s7 . October 14, 2014 ( 7sur7.be [accessed April 12, 2017]).
5. ↑ King Philippe entrusts Sabine Laruelle and Patrick Dewael with a new mission. Belgian Broadcasting, February 19, 2020, accessed on February 21, 2020 . 
6. ↑ List of all decorations awarded by the Federal President for services to the Republic of Austria from 1952 (PDF; 6.9 MB)