Belgian Prime Minister: general information and current leader

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:55

The Kingdom of Belgium is one of the most economically and socially developed countries in Europe. The coat of arms of Belgium is well known to many Europeans and residents of the rest of the planet. The democratic system on the territory of this country has been established for a long time. As for management, until 1918 the king alone commanded here, and after the end of the First World War, the head of the government of the kingdom of Belgium became the actual leader. The most famous top officials of the state will be discussed in this article.

Historical background

In the history of the post of Prime Minister of Belgium held more than sixty people. At the same time, several of them visited the head of the government twice, and four persons were even able to occupy the chair of this high official three times. If we talk about political affiliation, then the Prime Minister of Belgium was a representative of such parties as:

• Catholic.
• Liberal.
• Belgian worker.
• Belgian socialist.
• Social Christian.
• Christian folk.
• Flemish Democrats and Liberals.
• Christian Democrats and the Flemings.
• Socialist.
• Reform movement.

Gay Executive

Elio di Rupo is the name of the man who went down in history as the first gay Prime Minister of Belgium. He openly declared his sexual preferences back in 1996, long before his election to the main post of the state. At the same time, he repeatedly received threats from Islamists because of his orientation. Behind his shoulders he has a successfully defended thesis in chemistry, a job at a prestigious university and experience as a city mayor. He professes atheism and is a member of the Masonic lodge. He became prime minister on December 6, 2011, and finally resigned on October 11, 2014.

Current head

The coat of arms of Belgium in the international political arena is always protected by worthy politicians. The current head of the Cabinet of Ministers was no exception. His name is Charles Michel. He was born on December 21, 1975. He began his political career at the age of 16. In 1998 he received a law degree and became a lawyer. At the age of 24, he became a member of the country's House of Representatives, and a year later he was entrusted with leading the Ministry of the Interior of the Walloon government.

Work at a high level

During his years, Charles has already managed to visit the Minister of Cooperation and Development, the mayor of the city of Wavre. After that, on October 11, 2014, he conquered the top of the post of prime minister. This became possible after King Philip officially approved him inappointment and took the obligatory oath.

Michel's predecessor gave him the keys to the residence and wished him all the best, but noted that "the new government will try to force all workers without exception to work harder in order to earn them, and will be economically inefficient, which will bring pain to the simple citizens of the country." But be that as it may, Belgian Prime Minister Charles became the youngest person in the history of the state, who managed to climb so high up the political ladder.

Protests

Despite the fact that King Philip was a supporter of Charles, the common people nevertheless opposed the head of government. In November 2014, a demonstration was held with an estimated 100,000 participants. These were metallurgists, loaders, teachers and other representatives of the middle strata of the population who opposed raising the retirement age, freezing wage growth, cutting funding for state enterprises and institutions, and curtailing he althcare programs. The rally ended with cars overturning, stones thrown at police officers and flares lit. And on December 22, potatoes with mayonnaise were thrown at the prime minister during his meeting with the residents of the city of Namur. However, this incident did not embarrass Charles, and he continued his speech. The attackers were then arrested by the police. For this, Michel was threatened through anonymous letters, which is why additional security was assigned to him.

Gratitudesecurity officials

On March 23, 2017, Charles expressed gratitude to the country's security service for preventing a terrorist attack in Antwerp. According to the city authorities, a representative of North Africa was detained, who, dressed in camouflage, planned to run into a crowd of people in a car with French numbers.

An unfortunate incident

On May 28, 2017, Michel was forced to reschedule his previously scheduled speech in the Chamber of Deputies due to a sharp deterioration in hearing. This happened because the prime minister was stunned by a shot from the starting pistol, which was fired by the princess of Belgium during the opening of the marathon in the capital of the state.

No referendum

On May 7, 2017, the head of government spoke very sharply about the fact that he would categorically not allow the participation of Turks with dual citizenship permanently residing in Belgium in the decision to restore the death pen alty in Turkey. At the same time, Michel said that he has every legal opportunity to prevent such a vote on the territory of the Belgian kingdom.

Such a categorical position of the prime minister can also be explained by the fact that the conflict with Turkey dates back to 2016. Last spring, the Turkish leadership put forward tough demands to resolve the situation with migrants, to which Michel said that it looked more like blackmail than international negotiations.