Paul Magnette


Paul Magnette is a Belgian politician for the Socialist Party, the current mayor of Charleroi and former political science professor at the Université libre de Bruxelles. He was the 13th Minister-President of Wallonia from 2014 to 2017.

Biography

He studied political sciences at the ULB, and obtained a PhD in 1999 with a dissertation Citoyenneté et construction européenne. His research interest is on institutional policies, the European Union, and theories of democracy. In 2000, together with Éric Remacle, he was awarded the Exceptional Francqui Prize for European Research.
On 20 July 2007, Magnette became minister for Health, Social Action and Equal Opportunity of the Walloon government. On 21 December 2007 Magnette became minister for Climate and Energy in the Verhofstadt III federal government. He held the post in the Leterme I Government and held the same post of minister for Climate and Energy in the Van Rompuy I Government, which took office on 30 December 2008, and in the Leterme II Government. In the Di Rupo Government, which took office on 6 December 2011, Magnette was Minister for Public Enterprises, Scientific Policy and Development Cooperation until 17 January 2013, when he formally resigned to become mayor of Charleroi and Chairman of the PS.

Orders