| Mr. Yves Leterme |
Yves Leterme assumed the office of the 67th Prime Minister of Belgium on November 25, 2009. He was also Prime Minister of Belgium from March to December 2008. Leterme’s political career began in earnest in 1983 when he joined the ranks of the Christian Democratic Party and became chairman of the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP) Youth Section for the Ypres District, eventually increasing his responsibility as a District secretary and then, chairman. Today, he still serves as a member of the municipal council of Ypres.
Subsequent professional assignments have included assistant to the Minister Paul Breyne, advisor to Minister Paul Deprez, deputy auditor with the Belgian Court of Auditors, and administrator with the European Union. Yves Leterme has also been Minister-President of the Flemish Government, where he adopted a policy of tight budgetary discipline and investments and channeled resources into the infrastructure. In the Belgian federal government, Leterme served as Vice-Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget, Transport and Institutional Reform before becoming Prime Minister for the first time in 2008. He re-entered the government in 2009 as Minister of Foreign Affairs and took the Office of Prime Minister again on November 25th of the same year. Yves Leterme studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven — Kortrijk Division — where he received a B.Sc. degree in Law in 1981. He then studied at Ghent University where he received a B.Sc. degree in Political Science in 1983, a M.Sc. degree in Law in 1984 and a M.Sc. degree in Public Administration in 1985. He holds a 1984 diploma from the Centre for International Federalism Studies in Nice. Leterme is as Belgian as one can be — his Walloon father speaks French and his Flemish mother speaks Dutch. He resides in Ypres, Belgium, with his wife Sophie Haesen and their three children: Matthias, Thomas and Julie.
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