Guy Verhofstadt

Guy Verhofstadt (1953- ), Belgian politician, Prime Minister of Belgium (1999-2008). Born in Termonde, East Flanders Province, he studied law at the University of Ghent, and was called to the bar in 1975. Becoming a deputy in the Chamber of Representatives in 1985 as leader of a minor Flemish party, PVV, he served as deputy prime minister and minister for the budget in the coalition Christian Democrat government of Wilfried Martens. From 1988 Verhofstadt was president of the shadow Cabinet. He led PVV into a newly merged party, Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (VLD; Flemish Liberals and Democrats), and became leader of that party in 1992. In 1995 he was elected as a senator and was appointed vice-president of the Senate.

Following elections in June 1999, he was appointed prime minister by Albert II, succeeding Jean-Luc Dehaene. He swiftly put together a “rainbow” coalition comprising six parties: the Flemish Liberals, Socialists, and Greens, and their French-speaking counterparts—the first time in 41 years that the Christian Democrats had been out of power. He made his first task to deal with the impact of the dioxin contamination of food—a scandal that had brought down the previous Dehaene administration—that was estimated to have cost Belgium US$1.5 billion. Verhofstadt sought to implement liberal reforms, decriminalizing the possession of cannabis in 2000 and introducing legislation to make euthanasia legal in some circumstances in 2001. In April 2000 he apologized for Belgium’s failure to do more to prevent the 1994 genocide in Rwanda, formerly ruled by Belgium, and the subsequent year ordered the military to the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), another former Belgian colony, to prepare a plan for evacuation of Belgian citizens following the assassination of Laurent Kabila in January 2001. He also called for the deployment of a UN peacekeeping force in the country. In March, Verhofstadt held a controversial meeting with Robert Mugabe, despite the continued human rights transgressions in Zimbabwe, ostensibly to discuss Zimbabwe’s role in peacekeeping in the DRC. Verhofstadt made a visit to the DRC in June in support of the peace plan and the new regime of Joseph Kabila.

The Lambermont Accord, the latest constitutional arrangement in which the relationship between the Belgian federal government and its regions was reorganized with greater devolution, was approved that month. The Belgian presidency of the European Union (EU) in the second half of the year was widely regarded as unsuccessful on many fronts, overshadowed as it was by the events of September 11 and the war in Afghanistan. However the Laeken Summit in December did establish a convention under the presidency of Valéry Giscard d'Estaing to study the future of the EU after enlargement and the possible role of a constitution. Verhofstadt’s coalition was re-elected in May 2003, and he served a further four-year term as prime minister. However, at the June 2007 legislative elections, the PVV was beaten into fourth place. Verhofstadt announced his resignation as Belgium’s prime minister after the election results were announced, but stayed in the post while negotiations to create a new coalition took place. The failure of the Flemish Christian Democrats (the main winners in the 2007 elections) to form a government, and growing anxiety about the future unity of the Belgian state, led King Albert II to invite Verhofstadt to head an emergency government, encompassing five political parties, in December. The political deadlock was finally broken in March 2008 with Yves Leterme of the Flemish Christian Democrats being sworn in as prime minister to replace Verhofstadt.