Elio Di Rupo
Elio Di Rupo | |
---|---|
Leader of the Socialist Party | |
In office 22 November 2014 – 21 October 2019 | |
Preceded by | Paul Magnette |
Succeeded by | Paul Magnette |
In office 16 September 1999 – 6 December 2011 | |
Preceded by | Philippe Busquin |
Succeeded by | Thierry Giet |
Mayor of Mons | |
In office 8 October 2000 – 3 December 2018 | |
Preceded by | Maurice Lafosse |
Succeeded by | Nicolas Martin |
Personal details | |
Born | Socialist Party | 18 July 1951
Alma mater | University of Mons-Hainaut University of Leeds |
Signature | |
Elio Di Rupo (French:
Background and early life
Di Rupo was born in Morlanwelz, Wallonia, to Italian parents. His father was born in San Valentino in Abruzzo Citeriore. While Di Rupo was born in Belgium,[3] his brothers and sisters were all born in Italy. When he was one year old, his father died in a car crash and his mother was unable to raise all seven children. Due to the poor financial state of his family, three of his brothers were raised in a nearby orphanage.[4]
When he was 12, he attended boarding school. Due to medical issues, Di Rupo had to re-do his first year of high school twice, but eventually excelled in science at the end of his high school years.
Political career
Di Rupo came in contact with the socialist movement for the first time during his studies in Mons, where he first obtained a master's degree and afterwards a PhD in chemistry. He went during the preparation of his doctorate to the University of Leeds (United Kingdom), where his function was that of lecture member of staff in 1977–1978.[6]
He started his political career as an attaché at the cabinet of Jean-Maurice Dehousse in 1980–81. His first political mandate came in 1982, when he was Councillor of Mons (until 1985, and again from 1988 until 2000). In 1986, he was mayor of health, urban renewal and social affairs. Professionally, Di Rupo was at the same time cabinet member and then Deputy Head of Cabinet of the minister of finance of that time of the Walloon region and consequently Deputy Head of Cabinet of the minister of finance and energy of the Walloon region at that time Philippe Busquin (1981–85) and superintendent of the energy-inspection of the ministry of the Walloon region.[citation needed]
He is a deputy (MP) for the
In 2000, he became the mayor of
In 1987, he got his national political breakthrough. He was elected as member of the Chamber of Deputies and went two years later for a short time to the European Parliament.
In 1991, Di Rupo was chosen as a senator, but shortly afterwards (1992), he took in the French-speaking community his first ministerial function in Education and later also Media. These were his responsibilities until Guy Coëme, who was mentioned in the Agusta-scandal, resigned and Di Rupo went to the federal government in 1994 as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Traffic and Governmental companies. Following the elections in 1995, he remained the Vice-Prime Minister of Belgium and was appointed minister of Economics and Telecommunications. In 1995 he signed the merger of the Belgian airline Sabena with Swiss Air that eventually led to the bankruptcy of Sabena with thousands of unemployed employees as result.[9]
In 1996, at the time of the Dutroux affair, Olivier Trusgnach, a prostitute, alleged that Di Rupo paid him for sex while Trusgnach was still a minor.[10] This accusation could have meant the end of his political career. Di Rupo denied the accusations.
After the federal and regional elections of June 1999 in which, due to the
As new president of the party, Di Rupo was forced to make a generation change within the PS and go down a new path. During the regional and federal elections of 1995 and 1999, the PS lost many of its votes, partly because of
Di Rupo changed, in 2004, the liberal coalition partner for the Christian-democratic party, in the Walloon Government and in the Brussels Capital Government (in the last also the green party Ecolo was part of the government). By doing this, coalitions were made which differed from the federal coalition at that time. In October 2005, he became
In 2006 and 2007, Di Rupo and his party appeared unsuccessful in trying to clean out corruption. This was probably instrumental in the party's losing its first place amongst
After former PS president Guy Spitaels urged him to choose between the presidency of the party and of the Walloon Government, Di Rupo decided to organise internal elections for party president in July 2007 rather than in October of that year and announced that he would resign from his mandate as Minister-President if re-elected. On 11 July 2007, he was re-elected president of the Socialist Party with 89.5% of the votes.[14]
Prime Minister of Belgium
Following the
In May 2011, he was appointed
With Di Rupo's appointment, Belgium ended 589 days without a government, believed to be the longest such streak ever for a country in the developed world. Yves Leterme had resigned on 26 April 2010 and had been serving as caretaker prime minister since then.[16]
Board of directors
Between 2004 and 2005, Elio Di Rupo was on the board of directors of what was then Dexia bank, currently Belfius.[17]
Personal life
Di Rupo describes himself as an "
Di Rupo
Between Di Rupo's election and 2013, he was one of the only three openly gay or lesbian national heads of government, the other ones being Icelandic Prime Minister Jóhanna Sigurðardóttir, and Luxembourgish Prime Minister Xavier Bettel.[20]
Honours
- Belgium: Knight Grand Cross of the Order of Leopold II
- Belgium: Commander of the Order of Leopold
- Italy: Grand Officer of the Order of Merit of the Italian Republic
Source:[21]
See also
- List of the first LGBT holders of political offices
- List of openly LGBT heads of government
Notes
- ^ "Elio Di Rupo pronunciation: How to pronounce Elio Di Rupo in Italian, French, Dutch". Forvo.com. 1 December 2011. Retrieved 13 March 2012.
- ^ Castle, Stephen (1 December 2011). "18 Months After Vote, Belgium Has Government". The New York Times. Retrieved 19 November 2014.
- ^ Patrick Jackson (5 December 2011). "Profile: Belgium's Elio Di Rupo". BBC News.
- ^ a b c Jackson, Patrick (5 December 2011). "Profile: Elio Di Rupo". Bbc.co.uk. Retrieved 10 December 2011.
- ^ Francis Van de Woestyne (30 November 2011). "Hoe Elio Di Rupo doctor in de chemie werd". Vacature. Archived from the original on 29 October 2013. Retrieved 27 October 2013.
- ^ "Biography | Elio Di Rupo". Premier.be. 18 July 1951. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ (in French) Elio, tout simplement, article from La Libre Belgique, 22 April 2003
- ^ a b "Elio di Rupo: Belgium's unlikely prime minister". FT.com. Archived from the original on 10 December 2022. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ "Archives - lesoir.be". Archives.lesoir.be. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ Helm, Sarah (26 November 1996). "Gays under pressure in Belgium's moral backlash: Anger over child murders switches to Belgium's gays". The Independent. London. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ The party lost 20% of its seats at the Chamber of Representatives, see also this article Archived 30 September 2007 at the Wayback Machine that analyses the impact on socialists
- ^ "deredactie.be". Vrtnieuws.net. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ Belga. "Démission du collège communal". La Libre.be. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ BELGA (12 July 2007). "Elio Di Rupo est réélu". La Libre.be. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ "Regering Di Rupo I legt de eed af". De Standaard (in Dutch). 6 December 2011. Retrieved 6 December 2011.
- ^ "Belgium ends record-breaking government-free run". CNN. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ "Page 111: Monsieur Elio Di Rupo, qui avait été coopté par le conseil d'administration de Dexia SA le 16 novembre 2004. Monsieur Elio Di Rupo a démissionné du conseil d'administration de Dexia SA le 6 octobre 2005" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 17 October 2013. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ "Elio Di Rupo is tweetalig (zegt zijn leraar Nederlands)". Knack.be. 17 August 2012. Retrieved 12 February 2013.
- The Advocate. Archived from the originalon 9 February 2012.
- ^ Moody, Jonas (30 January 2009). "Iceland Picks the World's First Openly Gay PM". Time. Archived from the original on 1 February 2009. Retrieved 16 June 2015.
- ^ "L'actu d'Elio di Rupo : ses dernières actualités, sa carrière, sa vie privée, sa candidature et les résultats aux élections 2024, etc". DHnet (in French). Retrieved 1 April 2024.
References
- (in French) Visite à domicile Interview with Di Rupo in French (17 May 2007)
- (in Dutch) Hilariteit om bizarre tweet van Elio Di Rupo, Tweeting behaviour of Elio Di Rupo (in Dutch), published on 17 March 2013 in De Standaard
External links
- Media related to Elio Di Rupo at Wikimedia Commons