Jean Luc Dehaene

Vocation

Belgian politician, named prime minister on 7th March 1992. After the death of King Baudouin, Dehaene's government assume the powers of the head of state on the death of King Baudouin on 31st July 1993 until the announcement of the succession of King Albert II 9 days later. He was credited with transforming Belgium into a federal state, thus keeping the rival Flemish and Walloon populations together as one state. As premier his acknowledged negotiating skills enabled solutions to many difficult problems, but the latter part of his term of office was marred by several issues, including the cases of Marc Dutroux who kidnapped and murdered several schoolgirls, and carcinogenic dioxins found in Belgian animal feed, leading to international bans on the import of Belgian food. After being defeated in 1999 he became a member of the European PArliament (MEP), and as a life long football supporter Dehaene took the lead in the European Football Association's (Uefa’s) campaign to prevent rich owners pumping in funds to football clubs, which operate at a loss. In 2013 he was diagnose with pancreatic cancer. He died on holiday in Brittany, France, as the result of a fall. Link to Wikipedia biography