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Herman De Croo

Herman Francies Joseph De Croo (born 12 August 1937) is a Belgian politician of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats. First elected in March 1968, he is the longest serving Belgian member of parliament, serving uninterrupted until 2014. He is the father of incumbent prime minister Alexander De Croo. He went to school at Collège Saint-Stanislas in Mons. He obtained a doctorate in law from the Université Libre de Bruxelles in 1961, and later attended the University of Chicago Law School on a Fulbright Scholarship. From 1999 until July 2007, De Croo was the President of the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the country's Federal Parliament. He is the current mayor of Brakel. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Herman Van Rompuy

Herman Achille, Count Van Rompuy (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈɦɛrmɑɱ vɑn ˈrɔmpœy]; born 31 October 1947) is a Belgian politician, who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 2008 to 2009, and then as the first permanent president of the European Council from 2009 to 2014. A politician from Belgium's Christian Democratic and Flemish party, Van Rompuy served as the 49th prime minister of Belgium from 30 December 2008 until Yves Leterme (who was also his predecessor) succeeded him on 25 November 2009. On 19 November 2009, Van Rompuy was selected by the members of the European Council, which is the institution of the European Union (EU) comprising the heads of state or government of the EU member states, as the first full-time President of that Council under the Treaty of Lisbon. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Hilde Crevits

Hilde Urbanie Julia Crevits (born 28 June 1967, in Torhout) is a Belgian politician from Flanders and member of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party who is currently the Flemish minister of Economy, Innovation, Work, Social economy and Agriculture. Crevits graduated from Ghent University as a Licentiate of Law in 1990 and subsequently became a lawyer. Crevits served on the provincial council of West Flanders from 1999 to 2004, when she was elected to the Flemish Parliament in the 2004 regional elections. From 2000 to 2007 she served as an alderman in Torhout. After the 2007 Belgian federal elections, in the cabinet reshuffle of 28 June 2007, Crevits took over the competences of Kris Peeters in the Flemish Government as Flemish minister of Public Works, Energy, the Environment and Nature. After the 2009 regional elections she became Flemish minister of Mobility and Public Works in the Peeters II Government. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Inge Vervotte

Inge Vervotte (born 27 December 1977) is a Belgian politician for the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). She was Belgian federal minister for Civil Service and Public Enterprises in the Leterme I Government, which was in office in 2008 from 20 March to 30 December. Born in Bonheiden, she graduated in 1998 at the Katholieke Sociale Hogeschool in Heverlee as a social assistant [nl]. She started her professional career with the Confederation of Christian Trade Unions (ACV). She became known by the public when she defended the interests of the Sabena workers when their company went into liquidation on 6 November 2001. She decided to become a politician, and chose for the CD&V party. In the federal elections in 2003, she was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. In 2004 she was elected again, this time to the Flemish Parliament. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Ingrid Lieten

Ingrid Lieten (born 20 April 1964, Hasselt) is a Flemish politician and former Minister for Innovation, Public Investment, Media and Poverty Reduction in the Flemish Government for the Socialist Party – Different. She studied jurisprudence at the VUB and became a lawyer at the bar association of Brussels and Hasselt. A couple of years later, she obtained a master's degree in Industrial Location and Development. On 1 January 2002, Lieten became CEO of De Lijn, de Flemish national bus company. She left the company in 2009. On 13 July 2009 Lieten was appointed Minister for Innovation, Public Investment, Media and Poverty Reduction in the Flemish Government by her party, the Socialist Party – Different (sp-a). Lieten was also Flemish vice-premier, together with N-VA politician Geert Bourgeois. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Isabelle Durant

Isabelle Annie J. Durant (born 4 September 1954) is a Belgian politician of the Ecolo party who served as Deputy Secretary-General of the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) from 2017 to 2021 and as acting Secretary-General of the organisation from 2021 to 2022. Durant graduated as a nurse, then became a vocational trainer for the care sector, and worked with schools in working-class districts. She later complemented her nursing degree with a bachelor's degree in social and economic politics from the Université catholique de Louvain. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jan Jambon

Jan Jambon (born 26 April 1960 in Genk) is a Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) who has been serving as Minister-President of Flanders since 2019. He replaced Kris Peeters as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives in 2007. The N-VA was, at that time, partnered with the Christian-Democratic and Flemish party. In June 2010 and May 2014 he was re-elected on an N-VA list. He became mayor of Brasschaat in 2013 after his party won the local elections in 2012. In November 2014, he was replaced as acting mayor by Koen Verberck (also N-VA), after joining the new Federal Government. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jan Peumans

Jan Peter Peumans (born 6 January 1951 in Maastricht) is a Belgian politician from the Flemish province of Limburg. Being part of the Flemish Movement, he was at a young age already member of the Volksunie. He seated for that party in the Limburgish provincial council and is since 2004, a Flemish Parliament member for the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). In July 2004, he opposed, as Mayor of Riemst, the lengthening of the runway at Liège Airport. From 2007 until 2009, he was N-VA fraction leader in the Flemish Parliament. After the elections of 7 June 2009 (which was successful for his party; and with more than 27.000 Limburgish preference votes for him), he became President of the Flemish Parliament, succeeding Marleen Vanderpoorten. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jean Bock

Jean Bock (15 January 1931 – 11 September 2022) was a Belgian politician. He was a member of the Liberal Reformist Party (PRL) and later the Reformist Movement (MR). Bock's childhood was impacted by the loss of his mother at the end of World War II. He earned a teacher's diploma from the École normale de l’État de Verviers and conducted his military service from 1951 to 1952. He then taught at the École communale de Limerlé before leaving for the Belgian Congo from 1955 to 1960 in the Kasaï Province. There, he met his future wife, Andrée Léonard, with whom he had two children. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jean-Jacques De Gucht

Jean-Jacques De Gucht (born 9 December 1983) is a Flemish politician and member of Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats. He was elected to the Belgian Senate by the Dutch electoral college in the 2007 Belgian federal election, which took place on 10 June 2007. Jean-Jacques De Gucht is the son of Karel De Gucht, former European Commissioner for Trade Policy, Belgian Minister of Foreign Affairs and chairman of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats. As with Jean Sarkozy, criticism has been levied over the perceived nepotism which led to his appointment, at the age of 27, as the head of the electoral list for the Open VLD party in the 2007 federal elections for the province of East Flanders, despite his lack of any relevant work experience. In late 2013 and early 2014, the Belgian Federal Parliament approved a bill he co-sponsored to legalise euthanasia for minors. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jean-Luc Dehaene

Jean Luc Joseph Marie 'Jean-Luc' Dehaene (Dutch: [ʒɑ̃ːˈlyk dəˈɦaːnə] ; 7 August 1940 – 15 May 2014) was a Belgian politician who served as the prime minister of Belgium from 1992 until 1999. During his political career, he was nicknamed 'The Plumber' and 'The Minesweeper' for his ability to negotiate political deadlocks. A member of the Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V) party and its antecedents, Dehaene gained his first ministerial appointment in 1981. Dehaene's first government (1992–1995) included both Christian and Social Democrats and presided over the creation of a new constitution, effectively transforming Belgium into a federal state. His second government (1995–1999) coincided with a number of crises in Belgium including the Dutroux scandal. The Dioxin Affair, occurring shortly before the 1999 election, led to a swing against the major parties and Dehaene's government fell. Following his final term as Prime Minister he was active in both Belgian and European politics. He was also on UEFA's financial fair play regulatory body and managed Dexia Bank during the financial crisis. He was the last prime minister of King Baudouin's reign. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jean-Marie Dedecker

Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker (born 13 June 1952) is a Belgian politician. In 1999 and 2003, Dedecker was directly elected to the Belgian Senate for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In 2004, Dedecker ran for a seat in the Flemish Parliament, after taking his seat in the Flemish Parliament, Dedecker was elected by his colleagues as a community senator as well. He was expelled from the VLD, and eventually sided with the N-VA party for a brief time in November–December 2006. In January 2007, Dedecker presented his own political party— Lijst Dedecker—that participated in the 2007 general election. Against all expectations, Lijst Dedecker got 5 elected in Parliament, and 1 in Senate. Dedecker became well-known first for his long career as a judo coach, with his judokas winning for Belgium unprecedented number of medals (among them four times Olympian gold), and then for his politics. In 2004, as a pure outsider, he won 38% of the votes for the VLD party leadership against the party establishment. He was expelled from the VLD though in October 2006. Within the VLD he was one of the members that favours breaking the cordon sanitaire around the Vlaams Belang. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jean-Pierre Van Rossem

Jean-Pierre Van Rossem (29 May 1945 – 13 December 2018) was a Belgian stock market guru, economist, econometrician, convicted fraudster, author, philosopher, public figure, politician, and member of the Belgian and Flemish Parliaments. Van Rossem studied economics at the Ghent University in 1963–67. With his final term paper De omloopsnelheid van het geld : theoretische begripsbenadering en praktische toepassing in België (English: The velocity of money: Theoretical approach to understanding and practical applications in Belgium) he won the International Scholarship of Flanders-prize and was able to study two years of econometrics under Nobel Prize winner Lawrence Klein at the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jo Vandeurzen

Johan Maria Gerardus Vandeurzen (born 2 June 1958) is a Belgian politician, member of Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V), a centrist Flemish Christian Democratic party. Vandeurzen holds a Master of Laws degree from the Catholic University of Leuven. He works at Geyskens-Vandeurzen in Beringen. He became federal representative in January 1993 as a successor to retiring Luc Dhoore [nl]. In 2001, his party, the CVP, was rebranded into CD&V, of which he became secretary-general. In 2004 he became party leader. He remained party leader until December 2007, when he became Minister of Justice in the interim federal Verhofstadt III Government. He became the Belgian Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Justice and Institutional Reforms in the Leterme I Government, which took office on 20 March 2008. On 19 December 2008 he resigned after a crisis. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Joachim Coens

Joachim Coens (born 6 September 1966) is a Belgian politician and businessman who has served as the leader of Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams, a Christian democratic political party, since December 2019. Before politics, he had been managing director of the holding company for the Port de Bruges-Zeebruges. Coens was born in Bruges on 6 September 1966, the son of politician Daniël Coens, who served as a cabinet minister both in Flanders and nationally. Coens studied at the Catholic University of Leuven and Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and became a civil engineer. From 1990 to 1995, he was an engineer at BESIX and worked on projects in the Middle East and Eastern Europe. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Johan Deckmyn

Johan Deckmyn (born 21 December 1967) is a Belgian-Flemish politician and a member of the Vlaams Belang party. Deckmyn became active in the Vlaams Blok Jongeren, the youth wing of the former Vlaams Blok party and the nationalist student association VSG (Flemish Students Ghent) in the 1980s. In 1994, he became a provincial councilor in East Flanders for Vlaams Blok. In 2004, he was elected to the Flemish parliament for the reconfigured Vlaams Belang party and remained in this role until 2014. In 2019, he was re-elected to the Flemish parliament. Since 2011, he has been the group chairman of Vlaams Belang in the Ghent city council. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Johan Van Overtveldt

Johan Van Overtveldt (born 24 August 1955) is a Belgian journalist and politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). He served as Minister of Finance of Belgium from 2014 until 2018. In November 2013 Van Overtveldt switched over to politics, becoming a member of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). As main N-VA candidate for the 2014 European Parliament elections, he was elected as a member of the European Parliament. Following the formation of the Michel Government in October 2014, Van Overtveldt became Minister of Finance in the government of Prime Minister Charles Michel; Sander Loones succeeded him as member of the European Parliament. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Johan Vande Lanotte

Johan Cyrille Corneel Vande Lanotte (born 6 July 1955) is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the SP.A, and became its party president on 15 October 2005. He handed down his leadership positions after the SP.A lost in the 2007 general election. Between 1995 and 2014, he served more than 13 years as Deputy Prime Minister, the longest period for a Flemish socialist after WW II. In his last term he served as the Minister of Economy, Consumer affairs and North Sea in the Di Rupo I Government. With the formation of a new Centre-Right federal government, which excluded his party, Johan Vande Lanotte returned to local politics in October 2014 in Ostend, where he took up his position as alderman for the economy and tourism at Ostend City Council. From August 2015 until the end of 2018 Vande Lanotte was the mayor of Ostend. During his political career he continued to work as a professor at the University of Ghent, specialized in Constitutional Law and Human Rights. Since 2019, he is a lawyer (senior legal advisor) in the law office Van Steenbrugge in Gent. He was the initiator of the Turkey Tribunal held in Geneva in September 2021. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

John Crombez

John Crombez (born 19 September 1973) is a Belgian politician. He has been leader of the Socialist Party Differently (sp.a) since 2015. In the Di Rupo Government (2011–2014) he was Secretary of State for combatting fraud. In 2009, Crombez was elected to the Flemish Parliament, where he was parliamentary leader from July 2010 to December 2011 and has been again since September 2014. Crombez studied economics at Ghent University. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Joke Schauvliege

Joke Schauvliege (born in Ghent on 16 March 1970) is a Belgian politician from Flanders. She has been schepen (municipal officer) of Planning, Youth, Tourism and Environmental Development in the municipality of Evergem since 2 January 2007. She has been the national vice-president of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party since 2008. During the 2009 Flemish elections, she won the highest number of preference votes in the province of East Flanders. In July 2009, she took office as Minister for Environment, Nature and Culture in the Flemish Cabinet (Peeters II). Several artists found it unacceptable that she became Minister for Culture after she ignited controversy by saying she had little affinity with the cultural sector. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jos D'Haese

Jos D'Haese (born 24 August 24, 1992) is a Belgian politician who since 2019 has represented Antwerp Province in the Flemish Parliament, where he is the fraction leader for the Workers' Party of Belgium. D'Haese is also a member of the district council of Borgerhout and of the Belgian Senate. D'Haese obtained a master's degree in biology at the University of Antwerp in 2018. He was an elected student representative and chaired Comac, the student organization of the Workers' Party, in Antwerp. D'Haese co-founded the festival DiverCity. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Jos Geysels

Josephus 'Jos' Elisabeth A. M. Geysels (born 20 September 1952 in Turnhout) is a former Belgian (Flemish) politician, and former Representative in the Belgian Chamber for the ecologist party Agalev for which he was party chairman. He resigned from the post in 2003, taking responsibility for the party's loss of power in the elections. Geysels obtained a degree in Sociology at the University of Antwerp. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Joëlle Milquet

Joëlle F.G.M. Milquet (French: [jɔ.ɛl milkɛ] ; born 17 February 1961) is a Belgian politician from the Humanist Democratic Centre (CDH). She started her career at the Bar in Brussels. From 1995 to 1999 she was a delegate to the Belgian Senate. She has been the president of the CDH party since, and played a prominent role in the 2007-2008 formation negotiations for the Leterme I Government. During the government formation negotiations she was given the nickname 'Madame Non' (Mrs No) by the Flemish media [nl] for her fierce resistance to constitutional reform that would give more autonomy to the different communities of Belgium. She was Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Employment and Equal Opportunities in the Leterme I Government, which took office on 20 March 2008. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Karel De Gucht

Karel Lodewijk Georgette Emmerence De Gucht (Dutch pronunciation: [ˈkarəl də ˈɣʏxt]; born 27 January 1954) is a Belgian politician who was the European Commissioner for Trade from February 2010 until 31 October 2014. Previously, he served as Belgium's Minister of Foreign Affairs from 2004 to 2009 and as the European Commissioner for International Cooperation, Humanitarian Aid and Crisis Response from 2009 to 2010. De Gucht was born in Overmere, Belgium. He entered politics at a young age, and became president of the Flemish Liberal Students while studying at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Brussels. He graduated with a master's degree in Law and practised as a lawyer, mainly in commercial matters, at the bar of Ghent. He later taught European Law at his university. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Karl-Heinz Lambertz

Karl-Heinz Lambertz (born 4 June 1952) is a Belgian politician holding a master's degree in law from the University of Louvain (UCLouvain) with an additional specialisation in German law (University of Heidelberg). Lambertz was president of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) from 12 July 2017 until 12 February 2020 after serving a 2+1⁄2-year term as first vice-president. He is also president of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community of Belgium. Born on 4 June 1952 in Schoppen, Lambertz' interest in politics came early in his career, having served as President of the German-speaking Youth Council (1975–1980). After a number of functions linked to his academic background in law, he became a member of Parliament for the German-speaking Community in 1981. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Koen Daniëls

Koen Daniëls (born 17 May 1978) is a Belgian politician for the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). Daniëls became a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2014 on the East Flanders N-VA list. Because the N-VA mayor of Sint-Niklaas, Lieven Dehandschieter, did not take up his mandate in the parliament, Daniëls became a member of the Flemish Parliament in mid-June 2014 for the East Flanders electoral district . He is mainly concerned with education. In the 2019 elections, he was re-elected to the Flemish Parliament from third place on the East Flemish N-VA list. In the municipal elections of 2018, Daniëls was elected municipal councilor of Sint-Gillis-Waas. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Koen Geens

Koen Geens (born 22 January 1958) is a Belgian jurist and politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V) who served as the Minister of Justice and as Deputy Prime Minister in the governments of Prime Ministers Charles Michel and Sophie Wilmès. Geens studied at the University of Antwerp (UFSIA) and the Catholic University of Leuven (KU Leuven), where he received his law degree in 1980, and at Harvard University where he received an LL.M. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Kris Peeters

Kris Peeters (Dutch: [ˈkrɪs ˈpeːtərs]; born 18 May 1962) is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish who has been serving as vice-president of the European Investment Bank (EIB) since 2021. Earlier in his career, he was Minister-President of Flanders (2007–2014), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Economy and Employment in the government of Prime Minister Charles Michel (2014–2019), and a Member of the European Parliament (2019–2021). (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Kristof Calvo

Kristof Calvo y Castañer (born 30 January 1987) is a Belgian politician. He is a member of the Flemish left-wing green party. At the moment he is a federal representative. In the period 2014-2021, Calvo was rotating parliamentary group leader of Ecolo-Groen in the federal Chamber of Representatives. Since January 2013, he has been a councillor in Mechelen and since 2018 he is the leader of the joint list of liberals, greens and independents in the city council. Calvo was born in Rumst to a Spanish Catalan father, himself born in Barcelona but who migrated to Belgium with his family in 1960, and a Belgian mother. At home the family spoke Dutch and Kristof declared to the Barcelona's newspaper La Vanguardia in 2010 that he doesn't have enough vocabulary to speak Spanish and Catalan. He doesn't have the Spanish nationality. In 2010, at the age of 23, he became the youngest direct-elected representative in Belgian history. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Laurette Onkelinx

Laurette A. J. Onkelinx (born 2 October 1958) is a Belgian politician from the Francophone Socialist Party. She was the Deputy Prime Minister – Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health in the Belgian federal government, i.e., the Di Rupo Government, which took office on 6 December 2011. Born in Ougrée to Gaston Onkelinx [fr] and Germaine Ali Bakir, of Kabyle origin, she graduated in law at the University of Liège, after which she worked as a lawyer for ten years. At the age of 30 she was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives. Her father, Gaston Onkelinx, originally a Dutch-speaking migrant from Flemish Limburg to francophone Wallonia, has long been mayor of Seraing (near Liège) and member of the House of Representatives (1974–1987). Her grandfather, Maurice Onkelinx, was alderman and mayor of Jeuk in Limburg and lost his civil rights for some years after the Second World War. Her older brother, Alain Onkelinx, has been a member of the Regional Parliament of Wallonia since September 2005. She speaks French and Dutch. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Liesbeth Homans

Liesbeth Homans (born 17 February 1973 in Antwerp) is a Belgian politician and is affiliated to Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA, New Flemish Alliance). She was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2009 and as a member of the Belgian Senate in 2010. She was chairwoman of the Openbaar centrum voor maatschappelijk welzijn (Public Centre for Social Welfare) in Antwerp from 2013 until July 2014, when she became a member of the Bourgeois Government as Flemish Minister for Local Government, Poverty Reduction, Housing, Civic Integration, Equal Opportunities, Cities and Social Economy. In July 2019 she became the first female Minister-President of Flanders in succession of Geert Bourgeois as he became member of the European parliament. The Homans Government was however only an intermediate government in attendance of a new Flemish government and was replaced in October 2019 by the Jambon Government. On 2 October 2019 she became Speaker of the Flemish Parliament. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Louis Michel

Louis Michel (born 2 September 1947) is a Belgian politician. He served in the government of Belgium as Minister of Foreign Affairs from 1999 to 2004 and was European Commissioner for Development and Humanitarian Aid from 2004 to 2009. From 2009 to 2019, he was a Member of the European Parliament. Michel is a prominent member of the French-speaking liberal party, the Mouvement Réformateur. He is the father of Charles Michel, the previous Prime Minister of Belgium and current President of the European Council. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Louis Tobback

Louis Marie Joseph Tobback (born 3 May 1938) is a Belgian politician. Tobback is a Flemish social democrat and member of the political party SP.A. He was the mayor of Leuven (1995–2018) He graduated in Romance philology at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel. He is the father of Bruno Tobback, the former president of the Flemish socialist party Different Socialist Party (SP.A). Tobback started his political career in 1965 in the OCMW/CPAS council. In 1971 he was elected a member of the city council of Leuven, and became eerste schepen (first alderman). In 1974, he became the leader of the Belgian Socialist Party faction in the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, and became a controversial but respected politician. Tobback is known for his oneliners in which he clearly states his opinion. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Luc Van den Brande

Luc Van den Brande (born 13 October 1945) is a Flemish politician, member of the CD&V and was Minister-president of Flanders from 21 January 1992 until 13 July 1999. He took the initiative to create the Flanders Institute for Biotechnology (VIB). On 6 February 2008 he became President of the European Union's Committee of the Regions for a period of two years. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Ludo Martens

Ludo Martens (12 March 1946 – 5 June 2011) was a Belgian activist who founded and served as the first leader of the Workers' Party of Belgium. He wrote several works on the political history of Central Africa and the Soviet Union. In 1968, Martens founded the group Alle macht aan de arbeiders (All Power to the Workers), which became the Workers' Party of Belgium in 1979. He served as president of the Workers' Party until 2008. Martens was the last foreigner to meet North Korean president Kim Il Sung before his death on 8 July 1994. According to a press release by the Workers' Party, Martens died on the morning of 5 June 2011 after a long illness. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Maggie De Block

Maggie Celine Louise De Block ([ˈmɛɡi sɛˈlin luˈiz də ˈblɔk], born 28 April 1962) is a Belgian politician of the Open VLD who has been chairing her party's group in the Chamber of Representatives since 2020. De Block served as Minister of Social Affairs and Health in the governments of Prime Ministers Charles Michel and Sophie Wilmès from 2014 until 2020. Following a reshuffle on 9 December 2018 to prevent the government's collapse, she additionally resumed responsibility for Asylum and Migration. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Mahinur Özdemir

Mahinur Özdemir (born 7 November 1982, Schaerbeek) is a Turkish-Belgian politician, diplomat and was Turkey's Ambassador to Algeria between 2020 and 2023. She is the youngest and first female member of parliament to wear the hijab. She was expelled from the Humanist Democratic Centre party (cdH) for denying the Armenian genocide in 2015. She can speak French, Dutch, English, Turkish and Spanish. At first she wanted to study law, but as she reckoned that she wouldn't be able to litigate in court while wearing a hijab, she changed her mind. She holds a degree in political science, public administration guidance (Free University of Brussels). She is also an active member of many NGOs in Schaerbeek and the founder of a student organization. In 2006, she was elected as municipal councilor in the municipality of Schaerbeek. She joined the Christian Democratic Party in Brussels in 2009 and was elected as member of the Brussels Regional Parliament on 7 June 2009. She was the first woman to wear the headscarf in a Belgian parliamentary assembly. In July 2018, she announced she wouldn't run in the local elections in October 2018. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Marc Hendrickx

Marc Hendrickx (born 8 August 1968 in Mechelen) is a Flemish politician and is affiliated to the N-VA. He is a municipal councillor of Mechelen since 2001. He was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2009. Since 2010 he is an alternate member of the European Alliance group at the European Committee of the Regions. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Marianne Thyssen

Marianne Leonie Petrus Thyssen (Dutch pronunciation: [mɑrˈjɑnə 'tɛi̯sə(n)]; born 24 July 1956) is a Belgian politician of the Christian Democratic and Flemish Party (CD&V) who served as European Commissioner for Employment, Social Affairs, Skills and Labour Mobility between 2014 and 2019. Born in Sint-Gillis-Waas, to a Flemish family, not related to the family of Baron Thyssen, Thyssen graduated from the Catholic University of Leuven (KUL) in 1979, where she obtained a degree in law. She worked as a legal adviser for a Belgian organisation for the self-employed and small and medium-sized businesses UNIZO and the women's network Christelijke Middenstands- en Burgervrouwen (CMBV) now Markant, becoming Director then acting Secretary-General at UNIZO in 1991. From 1986-1988 she acted as legal adviser to the state secretary for public health and disability policy. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)

Marie Arena

Marie Arena (born 17 December 1966) is a Belgian politician who has been serving as Member of the European Parliament (MEP) since 2014. She is a member of the Socialist Party, part of the Party of European Socialists. From 2000 to 2009, Arena held several ministerial functions in various regional and federal governments. From 2000 to 2003, she was Walloon Minister of Employment and Training. She then was Federal Minister of the Civil Service, Social Integration, Cities and Equal Opportunities in the second government of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt from 12 July 2003 to 20 July 2004. She was the Minister-President of the French Community of Belgium from July 2004 until March 2008. She then became Federal Minister for Social Integration, Pensions and Large Cities in the Leterme I Government, which took office on 20 March 2008. She held that office until 17 July 2009. (Source: Wikipedia.org, CC BY-SA)