Guido De Padt (born 23 May 1954) is a Belgian politician and

Senator A senate is a deliberative assembly, often the upper house or Legislative chamber, chamber of a bicameral legislature. The name comes from the Ancient Rome, ancient Roman Senate (Latin: ''Senatus''), so-called as an assembly of the senior ...

for the

Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats The Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (, , Open Vld) is a Flemish liberal political party in Belgium. The party has been described as centre-right and has smaller factions within the party that have conservative liberal and social liberal ...

. Since December 2011, he also is the mayor of

Geraardsbergen Geraardsbergen (; ) is a city and municipality located in the Denderstreek and in the Flemish Ardennes, the hilly southern part of the Belgian province of East Flanders. The municipality comprises the city of Geraardsbergen proper and the follo ...

, an office he also held from 2001 until 2006. He started his national career as member of the Chamber of Representatives. From December 2008 to July 2009, he was

Minister of the Interior An interior minister (sometimes called a minister of internal affairs or minister of home affairs) is a cabinet official position that is responsible for internal affairs, such as public security, civil registration and identification, emergency ...

in the Van Rompuy I Government. In the Leterme II Government, he was appointed government commissioner for the internal audit of the federal government. In 2011, he replaced the socialist as mayor of Geraardsbergen. He got national media attention as strong defender to keep the Muur van Geraardsbergen in the

Tour of Flanders The Tour of Flanders () may refer to the following cycle races: * Tour of Flanders (men's race) The Tour of Flanders (), also known as ''De Ronde'' (''"The Tour"''), is an annual road bicycle racing, road cycling race held in Belgium every spri ...

. His party won the 2012 local elections in Geraardsbergen with 36% of the votes, while he got 25.8% of the preference votes. In contrast with other liberal leaders in

Flanders Flanders ( or ; ) is the Dutch language, Dutch-speaking northern portion of Belgium and one of the communities, regions and language areas of Belgium. However, there are several overlapping definitions, including ones related to culture, la ...

, his popularity had grown.

References

External links

* , - , - 1954 births Government ministers of Belgium Living people Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats politicians People from Geraardsbergen 21st-century Belgian politicians {{Belgium-mayor-stub