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Guy Verhofstadt (born April 11, 1953) is the current Prime Minister of Belgium.
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 (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 radical economical views and his young age, he became known as "Baby Thatcher".
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 Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (VLD). This new party attracted many politicians from other parties, notably from the Volksunie (VU) and the Christelijke Volkspartij (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 Thatcherism, and became more of a centrist figure, an evolution which especially became clear during his first term as Prime Minister.
Partly thanks to a food scandal that broke out just before the 1999 elections, the VLD became the largest party in the country, obtaining over 22% in Flanders. He quickly formed a coalition with the socialist and the green party in Flanders, and with the Walloon counterparts of these parties (a symmetric coalition). He was appointed Prime Minister on July 12 1999For the album by Prince, see 1999 (album 1999 is a common year starting on Friday (see link for calendar), and was designated the International Year of Older Persons by the UN. Events Kosovo War Former child star Gary Coleman files for bankruptcy Y2K prep. It was the first Belgian government without the christian-democrats since 1958, and the first one with the green parties.
Thanks to the economic situation in the beginning of his term, he managed to raise the lowest social alimonies and lowered taxations. After 2001, the economic situation began to get worse. The 'Ageing Fund' or 'Silver Fund' was set up, in order to ensure the maintenance of the retirement pays until 2030. But despite his efforts to boost the economy while in the same time maintaining the social benefits system (lowering of employer's contributions, encouragement of career interruptions,...), the unemployment began to rise, after having dropped during the second DehaeneJean-Luc Dehaene (born August 7 1940) is a Belgian politician. He was born in Montpellier, France, when his parents were fleeing for the German troops. He got into politics through the Algemeen Christelijk Werknemersverbond (ACW), a trade union which was 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 obtained a flexibilisation of the procedure for obtaining Belgian citizenship.
During the prelude to the Iraq crisis of 2003, Belgium joined France, Germany and Russia in their opposition against the invasion.
Following the 2003 general elections , Verhofstadt formed his second cabinet without the green parties, who were practically annihilated. For various reasons, the formation of this government took much longer than the previous one: the economic situation was not as good as it was in 1999, and both political families (liberals and socialists) were approximately the same size. The American government pressured for the abolishment of the law of universal competence (also known as the "genocide law"), which gave Belgian judges the authority to accuse and sentence non-Belgians (including American citizens) with crimes against humanity. These accusations were rarely followed up, and were often accused as being little more than politically-motivated international insults. Unofficially there were threats to remove NATOThe North Atlantic Treaty Organisation NATO , sometimes called North Atlantic Alliance Atlantic Alliance or the Western Alliance is an international organization for defense collaboration established in 1949, in support of the North Atlantic Treaty signed headquarters from BrusselsBrussels ( French: Bruxelles Dutch: Brussel German: Brussel is a major city in Belgium and its capital. Overview Brussels is first of all a city located in the middle of Belgium and its capital, but it sometimes also refers to the main municipality of the, which was widely seen as a vengeance for Belgium's opposition against the invasion of IraqThe Republic of Iraq is a Middle Eastern country in southwestern Asia encompassing the ancient region of Mesopotamia. It shares borders with Saudi Arabia and Kuwait to the south, Turkey to the north, Syria to the north-west, Jordan to the west and Iran to.
Nevertheless, Verhofstadt's second government was sworn in on July 12, 20032003 is a common year starting on Wednesday (link will take you to calendar), and also: The International Year of Freshwater The European Disability Year Summary Perhaps the defining global event of the year 2003 was the Invasion of Iraq launched by the U, 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 June 13 2004, his party lost votes, becoming third in Flanders. Though this has had no influence on his position as Prime Minister, there were rumours that the Christian-Democratic party (CD&V) 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.
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