Guy Verhofstadt ( ; born
Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt, 11 April
1953) is a Belgian
politician
who was Prime
Minister of Belgium from 1999 to 2008. He is currently a
Member of the European
Parliament and leader of the
liberal group in
Parliament
Early career
Born in
1953 in Dendermonde
, he became president of the Flemish Liberal
Student's Union (1972-1974) while studying law
in Ghent
. He
quickly became the secretary of
Willy De
Clercq, who was at that time the president of the Flemish
liberal party (
Party for
Freedom and Progress, PVV). In 1982, at age 29, he became
president of the party. In 1985 he was elected into the Chamber of
Deputies, and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget
under Prime Minister
Wilfried
Martens. Because of his economic views and his young age, he
became known as "Baby
Thatcher".
Another nickname from that era is "
da joenk", a
Brabantian dialect expression meaning "that kid"
(in a pejorative sense, referring to his rather iconoclastic and
immature style).
After being ousted from government he became leader of the
opposition. After a failed attempt to form a government in November
1991, he changed the PVV into the
Flemish Liberals and
Democrats (VLD). This new party attracted many politicians from
other parties, notably from the
Volksunie (VU) and the
Christian People's Party
(CVP).
However, despite the fact that many had high expectations, the
party did not manage to outstrip the CVP. Verhofstadt resigned and
disappeared from the political scene, only to return to the party's
presidency in 1997 with a less radical image. He gradually moved
away from
neoliberalism (partly under
the influence of his brother
Dirk,
a
social liberal political philosopher), and became more
of a
centrist figure, a change which
especially became clear during his first term as Prime
Minister.
Verhofstadt I
Partly because of a
food scandal that
broke out just before the 1999 elections, the VLD became the
largest party in the country, obtaining over 22% of the vote in
Flanders. He quickly formed a coalition with the socialist and the
green party in
Flanders, and with the
French speaking counterparts of these parties (a symmetric
coalition) in Brussels and Wallonia. He was appointed Prime
Minister on 12 July 1999. It was the first Belgian government
without the Christian-democrats since 1958, and the first one which
included the green parties.
Verhofstadt was awarded the
Vision for Europe Award in 2002 for
his work toward a more unified Europe. The economic situation gave
him leeway in raising the lowest social alimonies and lowering
taxation. After 2001, the economic situation worsened. The 'Aging
Fund' or 'Silver Fund' was set up, in order to ensure the
maintenance of pensions until 2030. But despite his efforts to
boost the economy while attempting to maintain the social benefits
system, unemployment rose, after previously falling during the
second
Dehaene cabinet.
Much to the disapproval of his coalition partners, Verhofstadt and
his VLD opposed granting the right to vote to non-EU residents.
Instead, they proposed and were able to liberalize procedure for
obtaining Belgian citizenship.
During the prelude to the
Iraq
crisis of 2003, Belgium joined France, Germany and Russia in
their opposition to the invasion.
Verhofstadt II
Following the
2003
general elections, Verhofstadt formed his second cabinet
without the green parties, who were virtually annihilated in the
election. For various reasons, the formation of the second
government was delayed well beyond normal: the economic situation
worsened to 1999 levels, both politically similar parties (liberals
and socialists) gained approximately the same seats. Additionally,
the various world governments were pressing for the abolition of
the
law of universal
competence (also known as the "
genocide
law"), which gave Belgian judges the authority to accuse and
sentence non-Belgians with
crimes against humanity. Accusations
that were made had rarely been followed up, and were often
dismissed as being little more than politically motivated
international insults. Verhofstadt's second government was sworn in
on 12 July 2003, with both coalition partners having agreed to
abolish the so-called "genocide law" and replace it with a much
weaker one.
In the
Flemish regional elections of 13
June 2004, his party lost votes, slipping into third place in
Flanders. Though this has had no direct
impact upon his position as Prime Minister, there were rumours that
the
Christian Democratic
and Flemish (CD&V) party that won the elections, would
participate in federal government.
Verhofstadt was suggested as a candidate
to replace Romano Prodi as the next
President of the European Commission
, but his candidacy was opposed and rejected by a
coalition led by Tony Blair and Silvio Berlusconi.
Since then, Verhofstadt has been faced with internal crisis after
crisis.
The first crisis coming to a head in the
autumn of 2004 was the question whether DHL
would invest in Brussels
Airport
, located in the Flemish municipality of Zaventem
. The
question which nearly caused the collapse of the cabinet was
whether to grant DHL extra landing rights during the night, this
being a hot topic of public debate and various court cases.
In the end
the split between employment and night rest was for nought as DHL
had only used the Zaventem option in order to get better conditions
from Leipzig
.
After the DHL crisis, Verhofstadt was faced with a communautary
crisis with regard to dividing the administrative arrondissement
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde
commonly abbreviated to BHV. The dividing was an issue that the
parties forming the Flemish regional government had written in
their government agreement. This caused a veto to be posed by the
Walloon parties. The crisis dragged on until spring 2005 when the
matter was shelved until after the federal elections of 2007 as the
Flemish parties forming the government, given the for them
disastrous opinion polls, didn't have the nerve to collapse the
government.
The
constitutional court of Belgium ruled that all elections held
after 10 June 2007 are invalid with the constitution because of the
non-separation of
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
In the autumn of 2005, Verhofstadt managed to score a success when
he was able to negotiate a "Generation Pact" with regard to
employment and social reforms, regardless of the opposition and
actions of the unions.
Verhofstadt was sworn in as municipal councilor in Ghent in January
2007, as a result of the
2006 municipal elections.
In the council, he is seated next to another cabinet minister,
Freya Van den Bossche, who was
elected a municipal councillor as well.He even postponed a visit to
the
Russian President Vladimir Putin to be able to go to the first
session of the newly elected council.
Verhofstadt III
Verhofstadt led the VLD into the
2007 general election.
Already with the
2006
municipal elections, the VLD showed signs of fatigue with the
Flemish voter, who seem to have had enough of eight years of
Verhofstadt, and the purple coalition governments. In an evening
speech on election day, Verhofstadt conceded defeat and asked for a
new generation to lead the VLD; he was to step down as prime
minister after a new government has been formed. However, the
formation of a new
government was complicated, and in the end, CD&V politician
Yves Leterme failed to bring about a
new government. Yet, certain policy matters became politically
urgent. The King therefore asked Verhofstadt to mediate an "interim
government" would be in office for three months and could propose a
2008 budget among others. A deal was struck in December, and the
"interim government" was set for inauguration on 21 December 2007.
On 23 December 2007 this interim government won a vote of
confidence in parliament, with 97 votes in favor, 46 opposed, and
one abstention, assuring it legitimacy for three months.
A "permanent government" under leadership of
Yves Leterme assumed office 20th of March
2008.
One of the first decisions of the new government, on 21 December
2007, was to raise the security level after it foiled an attempted
jail break of an Al Qaeda operative.
After his premiership
After his premiership he took up the seat of Senator to which he
had been elected in 2007.
In the 2009 European
Parliament election, Verhofstadt was elected a member of the
European
Parliament
for the term 2009-2014. He also has been put
forward as the possible candidate for replacing
José Manuel Barroso as the
president of the European
Commission by a coalition of
greens,
socialists and
liberals.
On July 1, 2009 he was elected President of the
Alliance of
Liberals and Democrats for Europe group in the European
Parliament.
On July 14, 2009 he took up his seat in the
newly sworn-in European Parliament to which he had been elected in June
2009.
See also
References
- [1]
External links