Yves Leterme

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Yves Leterme

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Incumbent
Assumed office 
25 November 2009
Monarch Albert II
Deputy
Preceded by Herman Van Rompuy
In office
20 March 2008 – 30 December 2008
Monarch Albert II
Deputy
Preceded by Guy Verhofstadt
Succeeded by Herman Van Rompuy

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In office
17 July 2009 – 25 November 2009
Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy
Preceded by Karel De Gucht
Succeeded by Steven Vanackere

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In office
20 July 2004 – 28 June 2007
Preceded by Bart Somers
Succeeded by Kris Peeters

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Born October 6, 1960 (1960-10-06) (age 49)
Wervik, Belgium
Political party Christian Democratic and Flemish
Spouse(s) Sofie Haesen
Residence Wervik, Belgium
Alma mater Catholic University of Leuven
Ghent University
Profession Civil servant
Religion Roman Catholicism

Yves Camille Désiré Leterme (Dutch pronunciation: [iːf ləˈtɛʀmə]) (born 6 October 1960) is a Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V), the 48th and current Prime Minister of Belgium.

Leterme was the Prime Minister of Belgium from March 2008 to December 2008. He has formerly been Minister of Foreign Affairs, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget, Institutional Reforms, Transport and the North Sea in the Belgian federal government. He is also a former Minister-President of Flanders and Flemish Minister of Agriculture and Fisheries. Despite his French name, Leterme is Flemish. He is fluent in both Dutch and French.

On 14 July 2008, facing the imminent failure to meet a self imposed deadline to enact "constitutional reform" consisting of further devolution of powers to the nation's three linguistic communities, Leterme tendered his resignation to King Albert II, the head of state. On 17 July, King Albert, after holding a flurry of consultations with leaders of political parties, labor unions, and the employers' association, rejected Leterme's resignation. Instead, the king appointed a three person commission of representatives of the linguistic communities to investigate how to restart the reform process. The commission was to report to the king by 31 July 2008.[1]

On 19 December 2008 he offered his resignation to King Albert II after a crisis surrounding the sale of Fortis to BNP Paribas.[2] On 22 December 2008 King Albert II accepted his resignation, along with that of his entire government. He remained Prime Minister until 30 December, when Herman Van Rompuy was appointed as his successor.[3]

On 24 November 2009, it was announced that Leterme would once again become Prime Minister, succeeding Van Rompuy, who had been selected to become the first President of the European Council.[4]

Personal life

Leterme was born in the city of Wervik in the province of West Flanders. He studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven where he received a LL.B. degree in 1981. He then studied at Ghent University where he subsequently obtained a B.Sc. degree in Political Science (1983), a LL.M. degree (1984), and a MPA degree in 1985.

Career

Before entering national politics, Leterme served as an auditor at the country's Court of Audit (Dutch: Rekenhof, French: Cour des Comptes). He then became adjunct and then national secretary of the CVP until he resigned to become a civil servant with the European Union. In 1997 he went on indefinite leave from that position when he was appointed Member of the Belgian Parliament. He has been a member of the city council of Ypres since 1995. He served as alderman of Ypres from 1995 to 2001.

He was appointed to the House of Representatives in 1997, elected in 1999 and 2003. After the defeat of the CD&V in the general elections of 2003, he succeeded Stefaan De Clerck as party chairman. In 2004 Yves Leterme became Minister-President of the Flemish government. Flanders has fared well during his term in office. Yves Leterme took a pragmatic course of increasing the economic dynamic and social wellbeing in Flanders. He has made the Flemish government into the ‘investment government’, focusing the investments on the infrastructure and logistics with respect to both the business climate and social wellbeing (notably Flanders Port Area, homes for the elderly, child care, and immigrant integration). In order to accelerate investment he has successfully encouraged the use of the PPP structures. Additionally, Yves Leterme’s government implemented rigorous budgeting – his government started with a sizeable implicit debt in Flanders which has been reduced to zero as the result of his policies.[5]

In the elections held on 10 June 2007, Leterme received 796,521 personal votes, leading his party to a landslide victory. This was the second highest amount of personal votes ever in Belgium’s national elections. On 21 December 2007, he became Vice-Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Budget, Transport, Institutional Reform and the North Sea. On 23 March, Leterme received confidence of the chamber as Prime Minister.

Controversies

Many French-speaking journalists take offence at Leterme's political opinions on the (in Flanders) widely supported demand for more Flemish autonomy. They consistently decry him for making provocative or erroneous statements.

During an interview with the French newspaper Libération in August 2006, Leterme, who is himself bilingual with a French-speaking father (as well as having a French name), made a remark about the overall failure and refusal of French-speaking inhabitants to learn and use Dutch in certain municipalities, more specifically in municipalities with language facilities.

“ Initially, the idea was that many French speakers would adjust to the new linguistic reality. But apparently the French speakers are intellectually not capable of learning Dutch.[6][7] ”

Most prominent Francophone politicians such as Elio Di Rupo[8] and Isabelle Durant along with some Flemish politicians such as Pascal Smet and Guy Vanhengel [9] objected to this remark. In the Flemish daily De Standaard of 28 August Leterme explained his words: "I am allowed to ask myself the question whether the lack of knowledge of Dutch is a matter of not wanting or not being able to."[10]

A news report produced by the Belgian Francophone television company RTBF alleged that Leterme said in the Flemish parliament: "I don't need the King"[11][12]. According to Flemish newspapers, this sentence was taken out of context, because Leterme was talking about the creation of Flemish statutes (decrees): legislation approved by the Flemish parliament, unlike federal legislation, does not need the king's signature in order to become law. The Flemish Minister-President signs the decrees himself.[13]

On one occasion, Leterme quipped that the only things common to all Belgians are "the King, the football team, some beers...". Upon being asked by a television journalist to name which event is commemorated by Belgium's national day (21 July), Leterme wrongly replied that it was the proclamation of the constitution, when the correct answer is the coronation of the nation's first King, Leopold I of Belgium. Subsequently, he was asked if he knew the French version of the Belgian national anthem, "the Brabançonne," whereupon he began to sing the French national anthem.[14][15]

Leterme caused controversy again in a December 2007 interview with the Concentra newspapers by denouncing Belgium's Francophone public broadcast network, the RTBF, for having its own political agenda, being a propagandist for CDH politician Joëlle Milquet, and being a relic of the past. Leterme further compared the broadcaster to Radio Mille Collines, which was a Rwandan propaganda outlet against the Tutsis during the Rwandan Genocide, though he later mentioned he had only quoted what was said in political circles.[16]

2007 general elections

On 6 May 2007, he officially launched his candidacy for the general election on 10 June 2007, leading his party's list of candidates.[17] On election day, he received about 800,000 preferential votes, which is the second largest number of votes ever gained in the history of Belgian elections. This was one of the greatest monster tallies in recent Belgian history (the previous comparable score was obtained by Leo Tindemans).

Based on this personal tally, on the successful tally of his party, and on the general election tallies which saw progress for most parties making the strongest demands for greater Flemish autonomy, such as CD&V, N-VA and the new Lijst Dedecker LDD), status quo for the left-wing Greens, and regression for the far right Vlaams Belang and parties making only modest demands for greater Flemish autonomy, such as OpenVLD and SP.A. Leterme as formateur convened the negotiations to form a coalition government, negotiations which would turn out to be protracted and initially lead to a stalemate.

2007–2008 political stalemate

Yves Leterme was the favourite to become the next Prime Minister of Belgium following the 2007 General Election.[18] From 16 July to 23 August 2007, Leterme led the formal coalition talks into forming a new government. But the negotiations failed over constitutional reform and on 23 August he resigned as formateur.[19]