Vincent Van Quickenborne

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Vincent Van Quickenborne

Vincent Van Quickenborne (born August 1, 1973 in Ghent ) is a Belgian politician of the Open Vlaamse Liberalen en Democrats (Open VLD). Van Quickenborne held an office in the federal government from 2003 (with a brief exception for the transitional government Verhofstadt III ) and was pension minister in the Di Rupo government under Elio Di Rupo ( PS ) until October 18, 2012 . At the local level, he is the mayor of Kortrijk .

Life

Vincent Van Quickenborne, or simply Q or Quick , as he calls himself, studied law at the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven (KULeuven) in 1996 and worked as a lawyer. Before entering politics, he was active in the “white committees”, the civic initiatives that wanted to force reform of the police services and the judiciary in the mid-1990s after the Dutroux affair.

After Van Quickenborne first joined various kinds of political associations as a student (including Amada , the predecessor of the PvdA party ), he finally joined the left-wing liberal movement ID21, founded by Bert Anciaux (today sp.a ) . In 1999 ID21 formed a joint list with the Flemish nationalist Volksunie for the federal elections under the name "VU&ID". Van Quickenborne stood for election and made it to the Senate at the age of 26 . There he was able to make a name for himself very quickly and in the media by submitting legislative proposals in the field of corporate governance or by actively trying to convict the then Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon for crimes against the Belgian courts because of his role in the Sabra and Shatila massacres suing humanity and meeting former Lebanese minister Elie Hobeika just before he was murdered in mysterious circumstances.

After the Volksunie fell apart two years later, Vincent Van Quickenborne first opted for the Spirit party (later renamed Vl.Pro and finally absorbed as SLP in the Groen! Party ). However, as it quickly became apparent that Spirit wanted to enter into an alliance with the socialist sp.a, Van Quickenborne finally decided on the VLD (now Open VLD ).

After the federal elections in 2003, Van Quickenborne was appointed Secretary of State for Administrative Simplification in the Verhofstadt II federal government under Guy Verhofstadt (Open VLD). In the later federal governments under Yves Leterme and Herman Van Rompuy (both CD&V ), in which he kept this portfolio, Van Quickenborne also rose to the position of Minister of Economics.

In 2009 he supported the hitherto politically unknown Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) as a “running mate” in his campaign for the party's presidency. When De Croo made the decision on April 22, 2010 to withdraw from the Leterme II government because of failed negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) constituency, thus triggering the premature end of the government and new elections, Van Quickenborne supported him despite of his ministerial office in the government. In the subsequent Di Rupo government, Van Quickenborne became deputy prime minister and pension minister, but left the federal level in 2012 to accept the mandate of mayor of Kortrijk.

In Belgium, Van Quickenborne is also best known for his “unorthodox” manner. For example, Senator Q had announced in his first election that if he made it to the Senate, he would "smoke a joint first " (which he ultimately didn't). Van Quickenborne is also an avowed fan of modern technology. He owned and used a hacked iPhone when it wasn't available on the Belgian market. He was also one of the first politicians in Belgium to have his own blog and introduce himself on social networks . Here, too, Q stood out when he published photos of the Council of Ministers on Twitter and provided them with comments, which met with little understanding from Prime Minister Leterme (CD&V).

Honors

Vincent Van Quickenborne was awarded the command of the Order of Leopold II .

Overview of political offices

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. His official website was called "Minister Q" for a while; see archived copy ( memento of the original from March 15, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ministerq.be
  2. GVA.be: Belgian senators bezoeken massa graf Sabra en CHATILLA (20 January 2002) (NDL.); Haaretz.com: Who remembers Sabra and Chatila? (September 27, 2007) (eng.)
  3. Lalibre.be: Les progressistes de la VU fondent Spirit (November 11, 2001) (French)
  4. Lalibre.be: Le VLD vire progressiste et pluraliste (May 23, 2002) (French)
  5. ^ De Morgen: Van Quickenborne: "Alexander De Croo beslist bij Open Vld" (April 26, 2010) (ndl.)
  6. Nieuwsblad.be: Q. voor legalisering softdrugs maar tegen coffeeshops (February 2, 2008) (ndl.)
  7. Lalibre.be: Un iPhone pirate au gouvernement (August 8, 2008) (French)
  8. Nieuwsblad.be: Quickie gooit 'secret' foto's op Twitter (February 12, 2010) (ndl.)