Bert Jozef Herman Vic Anciaux (born 11 September 1959) is a Belgian

politician A politician is a person who participates in Public policy, policy-making processes, usually holding an elective position in government. Politicians represent the people, make decisions, and influence the formulation of public policy. The roles ...

and

Vooruit Vooruit ( , ) is a historic complex in Ghent, Belgium. Vooruit was originally the festival and art centre of the Ghent-based labour movement, with a ballroom, cinema, theatre, etc. It is now mainly used for concerts and other cultural events ...

faction leader in the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( ; ; ) is one of the two chambers of the Bicameralism, bicameral Belgian Federal Parliament, Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium), Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be ...

. He was one of the founders of Spirit (later known as the Flemish Progressives, then the Social Liberal Party, or SLP). Served as Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport in the

Flemish Government The Flemish Government ( ) is the executive branch of the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region of Belgium. It consists of a government cabinet, headed by the Minister-President of Flanders, Minister-President and accountable to the Flemish Par ...

from 2004 until 2009, he was also Minister for relations with the

Brussels-Capital Region Brussels, officially the Brussels-Capital Region, (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) is a region of Belgium comprising 19 municipalities, including the City of Brussels, which is the capital ...

and the

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().

Political career

Volksunie (1987–1998)

Anciaux was born into a political family. His father Vic Anciaux was chairman of the Volksunie (VU), a

nationalist Nationalism is an idea or movement that holds that the nation should be congruent with the State (polity), state. As a movement, it presupposes the existence and tends to promote the interests of a particular nation,Anthony D. Smith, Smith, A ...

party, from 1979 until 1985. Bert first held office as a councilman in the

City of Brussels The City of Brussels is the largest List of municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, municipality and historical City centre, centre of the Brussels, Brussels-Capital Region, as well as the capital of the French Community of Belgium, the ...

in 1987, and in 1991, became a member of the provincial council of

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( ; ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Hainaut and East Flanders. Flemish Brabant also ...

. He became chairman of the Volksunie in 1992, serving until 1998. From 1995 to 1999, he sat in the

Volksunie-iD21 (1998–2001)

Following the 1998

White March The White March (; ; ) was a demonstration in Brussels on 20 October 1996 after serial killer and criminal Marc Dutroux was arrested. The demonstrators wanted better protection for children and a better functioning justice system that could inv ...

es provoked by the publication of official reports on the Affaire Dutroux, Anciaux founded the

think-tank A think tank, or public policy institute, is a research institute that performs research and advocacy concerning topics such as social policy, political strategy, economics, military, technology, and culture. Most think tanks are non-governme ...

, later political group, , which aimed to confront the corruption and incompetence which the Dutroux affair had brought to light. In the 1999 Belgian general election, the combined Volksunie-iD21 list gained 8% of the vote, up from around 5% in

1995 1995 was designated as: * United Nations Year for Tolerance * World Year of Peoples' Commemoration of the Victims of the Second World War This was the first year that the Internet was entirely privatized, with the United States government ...

. Anciaux was elected to the

European Parliament The European Parliament (EP) is one of the two legislative bodies of the European Union and one of its seven institutions. Together with the Council of the European Union (known as the Council and informally as the Council of Ministers), it ...

Spirit / Flemish Progressives (2001–2009)

With the collapse of the Volksunie in 2001, split between left and right factions led by Anciaux and

Geert Bourgeois Geert Albert Bourgeois (; born 6 July 1951) is a Belgium, Belgian politician of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which he founded in 2001, who is currently serving as a Member of the European Parliament since 2019. He previously served as the Mi ...

which became Spirit and

New-Flemish Alliance The New Flemish Alliance ( ; N-VA) is a Flemish nationalist, conservative political party in Belgium. The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-nationalist People's Union (VU). The N-VA is a regionalist an ...

(NV-A) respectively. A number of iD21 members joined Agalev, the Flemish

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party, rather than Spirit. In 2002, Anciaux stepped down as Minister for Culture in the Flemish government. Following the 2003 Federal election, where Anciaux and Spirit ran in a cartel with Socialist Party Different (SP.a), he was appointed Federal transport minister. In July 2004, he resigned this post and returned to his present position as Minister for Culture, Youth and Sport in Flanders.

Vooruit (2009–present)

In 2008, he left his party and has expressed the desire to launch a new "Social Project". He then joined the Flemish social-democratic party Vooruit, then called Sp.a. In 2010, he was elected to the Belgian Senate and took over the position of faction leader of Vooruit in 2012, when Marleen Temmerman resigned from politics.

Honours

* : Commander of the Order of Leopold (6 June 2009)Belgian Senate
Biography
/ref> * : Knight Grand Cross in the

Order of Orange-Nassau The Order of Orange-Nassau () is a civil and military Dutch order of chivalry founded on 4 April 1892 by the queen regent, Emma of the Netherlands. The order is a chivalric order open to "everyone who has performed acts of special merits for ...

Notes

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Anciaux, Bert Living people 1959 births Flemish activists Sociaal-Liberale Partij politicians People's Union (Belgium) politicians Vrije Universiteit Brussel alumni People from Merksem 21st-century Belgian politicians Belgian senators of the 57th legislature Belgian senators of the 56th legislature Belgian bloggers