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Verhofstadt II Government

The Verhofstadt II Government was the federal government of Belgium from 12 July 2003 to 21 December 2007.

It was the second government headed by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt (VLD). It was formed after the 2003 general election. It consisted of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD), the French-speaking Liberal Reformist Party (MR), the Flemish Socialist Party (SP.a) and the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS). Because it comprised liberals and socialists, it was also known as a "purple" coalition. It was a continuation of the Verhofstadt I Government but without the Green parties.

Original Composition 2003-2004

Parliamentary support of the government

Function	Holder	Party
Prime Minister		Guy Verhofstadt
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Justice		Laurette Onkelinx
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of Foreign Affairs		Louis Michel
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of the Budget and Public Enterprises		Johan Vande Lanotte
Deputy Prime Minister
Minister of the Interior		Patrick Dewael
Minister of Employment and Pensions		Frank Vandenbroucke
Minister of Defence		André Flahaut
Minister of Development Cooperation		Marc Verwilghen
Minister of Finance		Didier Reynders
Minister of the Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade, and Science		Fientje Moerman
Minister of Social Affairs and Public Health		Rudy Demotte
Minister of Mobility and Social Economy		Bert Anciaux
Minister of the Civil Service, Integration, and Large Cities		Marie Arena
Minister of the Middle Class and Agriculture		Sabine Laruelle
Minister of the Environment, Consumer Protection, and Sustainable Development		Freya Van den Bossche
Secretary of State for Informatization		Peter Vanvelthoven
Secretary of State for European Affairs		Jacques Simonet
Secretary of State for Financial Modernization and the Fight Against Fiscal Fraud		Hervé Jamar
Secretary of State for Labour Organization and Welfare at Work		Anissa Temsamani
Secretary of State for Family and the Handicapped		Isabelle Simonis
Secretary of State for Administrative Reform		Vincent Van Quickenborne

Reshuffles

On 25 September 2003, Temsamani had to resign because she had lied about a diploma she received
On 12 February 2004, Jacques Simonet resigned to become Minister-President of Brussels, he was replaced by Didier Donfut (PS).

Composition after the 2004 Regional elections

The 2004 Regional elections saw a fundamental reshuffle to the federal government as various federal ministers joined regional governments after these elections. The federal government after this date is often called Verhofstadt IIbis.

2004 Reshuffles

Louis Michel became European Commissioner and was replaced as Deputy Prime Minister by Didier Reynders and as Foreign Minister by Karel De Gucht (VLD).
Frank Vandenbroucke joined the Flemish Government and was replaced as minister of Labour by Freya Van den Bossche who kept Consumer Affairs. Bruno Tobback (SP.a) became minister taking over Environment from Freya Van den Bossche and Pensions from Vandenbroucke.
Fientje Moerman joined the Flemish Government and was replaced as minister for Economy, Energy, Foreign Trade and Scientific Research by Marc Verwilghen, who in turn was succeeded as minister of Development Cooperation by Armand De Decker (MR).
Bert Anciaux joined the Flemish Government and was succeeded as minister for Mobility by Renaat Landuyt (SP.a)
Marie Arena became Minister-President of the French Community government and was replaced as minister by Christian Dupont (PS)
Els Van Weert (Spirit) became state secretary for Sustainable Development
Isabelle Simonis was replaced by Gisèle Mandaila Malamba (MR) as state secretary for Family and Persons with a handicap

Later Reshuffles

On 15 October 2005, Johan Vande Lanotte resigned to become Chairman of the SP.a. He was replaced as Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for the Budget by Freya Van den Bossche, who kept Consumer Affairs. Peter Vanvelthoven was promoted to Minister of Labour and Informatisation and Bruno Tuybens (SP.a) became state secretary for Public Enterprises.
After the 2007 general elections the Verhofstadt II Government functioned as a caretaker government until December 2007. During that period the following reshuffling took place:
- On 15 July 2007, Armand De Decker became Chairman of the Belgian Senate. His competence (Development Cooperation) was taken over by Sabine Laruelle and Hervé Jamar was promoted to minister.
- In July 2007 Rudy Demotte became Minister-President of the Walloon Government. His competences were taken over by Didier Donfut, who was promoted to minister.

Wikipedia Source

This article was imported from Wikipedia and is available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 License. Content has been adapted to SurfDoc format. Original contributors can be found on the article history page.

governments-of-belgium 2003-establishments-in-belgium 2007-disestablishments-in-belgium cabinets-established-in-2003 cabinets-disestablished-in-2007 grand-coalition-governments coalition-governments-of-belgium

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