Yves Leterme

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Yves Leterme (2009)

Yves Camille Désiré Leterme (born October 6, 1960 in Wervik , Belgium ) is a Belgian politician of the Christians Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V). He is the former Prime Minister of the Flemish Region and was Belgian Prime Minister and Head of Government from November 25, 2009 to December 5, 2011 . He already held this office from March 20, 2008 to December 30, 2008. From July 17, 2009 to November 25, 2009 he was Belgian Foreign Minister .

biography

Yves Leterme is the son of a French-speaking father and a Flemish mother. He went to school in Ypres and studied law and political science at Ghent University . From 1987 to 1989 he worked as an auditor for the Belgian Court of Auditors . He then began his national party career in the Flemish Christian Democratic Party CD&V (at that time still CVP) and made it to the National Secretary in 1991 until he moved to the European Union as an administrative officer. In 1997 he became a member of the Belgian Parliament and granted an indefinite exemption from the European Union. In 1999 and 2003 he was re-elected to parliament. From 1995 to 2001 he was also a city councilor in Ypres.

After the CD & V's defeat in the 2003 parliamentary elections, Leterme became its party chairman as the successor to Stefaan De Clerck . In 2004 the CD&V won the Flemish regional elections and Leterme became Prime Minister in a coalition government with smaller parties. Leterme then gave up the party leadership.

In the Belgian parliamentary elections on June 10, 2007, Leterme stood as the top candidate of the CD&V. After the significant gains of the Christian Democrats in both Flanders and Wallonia, Leterme was commissioned by King Albert II to form a government; thereupon he resigned his office as Flemish Prime Minister. He first led coalition negotiations with the Flemish Liberals and the French-speaking Christian Democrats and Liberals . However, since no progress could be made with regard to a further transfer of powers from the central state to the regions, which was demanded by the Flemish but rejected by the Francophones, Leterme returned the order to form a government on 23 August. A month later he was again entrusted with the formation of a government by Albert II, but admitted on December 1, 2007 that the formation of a government led by him had finally failed. In Guy Verhofstadt's transitional government, sworn in on December 21, 2007, Leterme holds the offices of Vice Prime Minister and Minister for Budget, Mobility and Institutional Reforms.

On March 18, 2008 it was announced that Flemish and Walloon Christian Democrats ( CD&V and cdH ) and Liberals ( Open VLD and MR ) as well as the Walloon Socialists ( PS ) had agreed on the formation of a joint government with Leterme as Prime Minister. On March 20, 2008, he was sworn in as Belgian Prime Minister.

On July 14, 2008, however, he offered the Belgian king his resignation because his government had not been able to agree on a state reform, for which Leterme had set a deadline of July 15. The reform was intended to defuse the constant, crippling conflict between the two parts of Belgium by redistributing competences between the state and regions. Albert II, however, rejected Leterme's resignation on July 17 and hired three politicians to mediate in the conflict over state reform.

On December 19, 2008, Leterme offered to resign his entire government. The prime minister's office and the minister of justice had been accused of influencing a lawsuit over the sale of the ailing Fortis bank. After the government announced the sale of 75 percent of the shares in the French bank BNP Paribas in September 2008 , the small shareholders of Fortis went to court because they had not been consulted. The court ruled in the second instance that all transactions must be suspended until a proper vote by the shareholders. As the Belgian Court of Cassation stated in a report, the government tried to prevent this decision . Leterme denied the attempt to exert influence. On December 22nd, King Albert II accepted the resignation. The Leterme government initially remained in office. On December 30, 2008, Herman Van Rompuy was sworn in as the new Belgian Prime Minister.

Leterme hit the headlines on July 21, 2007 when he wrongly replied to the question about the reason for the Belgian national holiday on July 21 with the "proclamation of the constitution"; in fact, it was on that day that the first king of the Belgians took the oath on the constitution . He also confused the reporters of the francophone TV station RTBF by singing the French anthem when asked to sing the Belgian national anthem.

On July 17, 2009, Leterme Karel de Gucht , who moved to the EU Commission, succeeded the Van Rompuy I government as Foreign Minister .

After Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy was designated the first permanent President of the European Council on November 19, 2009 , he resigned as Prime Minister on November 25, 2009 due to incompatibility of offices. On the same day, Yves Leterme was appointed Prime Minister and has since led his second federal government.

The renewed dispute over the layout of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency led to the departure of the Flemish Open VLD from the Letermes five-party coalition in April 2010. Although Leterme still had an arithmetical parliamentary majority after the withdrawal of the Liberals, on April 22, 2010, he submitted his resignation to King Albert II. After the king first rejected this resignation, he accepted it on the evening of April 26, 2010.

On June 13, 2010, early elections took place, in which the CD&V suffered heavy losses. The strongest parties were the Flemish Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie and the Francophone PS. Both parties failed to form a government, and the renewed discussion about reforming the Belgian state also stalled. Leterme then remained in office as executive prime minister despite being voted out of office in June 2010.

On September 16, 2011, Leterme was appointed as the new Deputy Secretary General of the OECD , so that he had to leave Belgian politics by the end of 2011 at the latest. At the OECD, Leterme is responsible for social policy, employment, health and small and medium-sized enterprises.

Yves Leterme is married to Sofia Haesen and has three children. He lives in Ypres .

Overview of political offices

  • 1995 - today : Member of the municipal council in Ypres
  • 1995 - 2001: Aldermen in Ypres
  • 1997 - 2004: Member of the Federal Chamber of Deputies
  • 2004 - 2007: Member of the Flemish Parliament (partially prevented)
  • 2004 - 2007: Prime Minister of the Flemish Government , responsible for institutional reform, agriculture, fisheries and rural policy
  • 2007 - 2010: Senator (partially prevented)
  • 2007 - 2008: Deputy Prime Minister, Minister for the Budget, Mobility and Institutional Reforms in the Verhofstadt III government
  • 2008: Prime Minister of the Federal Government Leterme I
  • 2009: Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs and Foreign Trade in the Van Rompuy government (after restructuring)
  • 2009 - 2011: Prime Minister of the Federal Government Leterme II
  • 2010 - today : Member of the federal Chamber of Deputies (partially prevented)
  • 2014 - Supervisory Board Tele Columbus AG

Web links

Commons : Yves Leterme  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tages-Anzeiger : Formation of government in Belgium failed on 23 August 2007.
  2. Tagesschau : Leterme throws in the towel (tagesschau.de archive) from December 1, 2007.
  3. Tagesschau : Five-party coalition ends nine-month crisis ( memento from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from March 18, 2008.
  4. ^ Spiegel Online : Request to resign from the King: Belgian government failed after four months on July 15, 2008
  5. ^ Spiegel Online : Crisis in Belgium: King Albert rejects Leterme's resignation from July 18, 2008.
  6. ^ Neue Zürcher Zeitung : Belgian government offers resignation from December 19, 2008.
  7. ^ Spiegel Online : Belgium: Top politician sings wrong national anthem from July 22, 2007
  8. Back of chairs in the Belgian government of July 17, 2009
  9. Lalibre.be: Yves Leterme nommé Premier ministre (November 25, 2009) (French)
  10. Die Welt : Yves Leterme's coalition is at the end , April 22, 2010.
  11. Martin Buxant & Francis Van de Woestyne: " La chute (de val, the downfall) ", La Libre Belgique , April 27, 2010.
  12. Official: Prime Minister Yves Leterme moves to OECD , BRF online , September 16, 2011.