Jean-Marie Dedecker
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Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker (born 13 June 1952) 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 ...
. In 1999 and 2003, Dedecker was directly elected to 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 ...
for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD). In 2004, he ran for a seat in the
Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch language, Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislature, legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic reg ...
, and after taking his seat in the Flemish Parliament, he was elected by his colleagues as a community senator as well. He was expelled from the VLD, and eventually sided with the N-VA party for a brief time in November–December 2006. In January 2007, Dedecker presented his own political party— Lijst Dedecker—that participated in the 2007 general election. Against all expectations, Lijst Dedecker got 5 elected in Parliament, and 1 in Senate. Dedecker became well-known first for his long career as a
judo is an unarmed gendai budō, modern Japanese martial art, combat sport, Olympic sport (since 1964), and the most prominent form of jacket wrestling competed internationally.『日本大百科全書』電子版【柔道】(CD-ROM version of Encyc ...
coach, with his judokas winning for Belgium unprecedented number of medals (among them four times Olympian gold), and then for his politics. In 2004, as a pure outsider, he won 38% of the votes for the VLD party leadership against the party establishment. He was expelled from the VLD though in October 2006. Within the VLD he was one of the members that favours breaking the cordon sanitaire around the
Vlaams Belang Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...
. In 2006, (as VLD member) he published a book, ''Rechts voor de raap'', which became a national best-seller. In 2015, he was awarded the Prize for Liberty by the Flemish classical-liberal think tank Libera!. Since 2019, he has been the mayor of Middelkerke. In the
2019 Belgian federal election Federal elections were held in Belgium on 26 May 2019, alongside the country's European and regional elections. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from eleven multi-member constituencies. The far right-wing Vlaams ...
, he was elected to parliament once again as an independent candidate on the N-VA's list.


VLD exit

The 2006 Belgian municipal elections were lost by the VLD, also in
Ostend Ostend ( ; ; ; ) is a coastal city and municipality in the province of West Flanders in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It comprises the boroughs of Mariakerke, Raversijde, Stene and Zandvoorde, and the city of Ostend proper – the la ...
, where Dedecker was a candidate. In Ostend, they lost out to the
Socialist Party Socialist Party is the name of many different political parties around the world. All of these parties claim to uphold some form of socialism, though they may have very different interpretations of what "socialism" means. Statistically, most of th ...
(SP.A), for which party president Johan Vande Lanotte was a candidate in the city. In the run-up to the elections, Vande Lanotte and Dedecker clashed severely, with Dedecker claiming that Vande Lanotte, as councilor and socialist party "strong man," made Ostend the "Palermo of the North Sea." The local VLD party in Ostend, led by Bart Tommelein, does want to pursue a city coalition with the Socialist though. Dedecker however stated, on election night, that the VLD with this result cannot be part of any coalition. Two days later, the national head of the VLD,
Bart Somers Bartolomeus Jozef Lodewijk Rosalia "Bart" Somers (born 12 May 1964 in Mechelen) is a Belgian, Flemish politician. He is currently the mayor of Mechelen. In 2017, Bart Somers was awarded 2016 World Mayor Prize as recognition for his outstandin ...
, intervened, by stating that Dedecker will be removed from the VLD. Somers stated that in the last few days Dedecker has showed himself to be a "inveterate trouble maker who keeps on creating damaging battles in his own party." Dedecker responded that "first they use me to attract votes in the local elections, only to put me on the street once the votes have been counted." Bart Tommelein later on accused Dedecker of being "the ''largest'' Calimero of Flemish politics." It was not unlikely that Dedecker would step over to VLOTT, a party being led by Hugo Coveliers. Coveliers was also a VLD member, but was ejected when he clashed with then party head Karel De Gucht. He openly invited Dedecker to start a VLOTT division in West Flanders. In an opinion article for
De Standaard (, ) is a Flemish daily newspaper published in Belgium by Mediahuis (formerly Corelio and VUM). It was traditionally a Christian-Democratic paper, associated with the Christian-Democratic and Flemish Party, and in opposition to the Sociali ...
Coveliers wrote: "...I predicted I would not be the last one. There were still some independent minds running around that had to be tamed...Jean-Marie Dedecker goes out the same way: the party leader of the SP.A decides that the VLD has to bring a sacrifice, which the VLD executive eagerly fulfills.... They thereby relinquish themselves of a tough contender. These corruptible politicians would simply not allow any criticism.... There is no one left to oppose them now Dedecker is liquidated.... With his liquidation, the VLD merges left, soon to turn left, to the left side of society. Far away from the original liberal voters and principles." Coveliers claims he was ejected from the VLD on command of (then) SP.A leader Steve Stevaert. Some believe the same thing happened to Dedecker, on command of Socialist Party leader Johan Vande Lanotte.


N-VA entry and exit

After being expelled from the VLD Dedecker looked into starting a new liberal party, which might have seen the involvement of Hugo Coveliers of VLOTT, and law professor Boudewijn Bouckaert. He made it clear that he would not join the
Vlaams Belang Vlaams Belang (; ; VB) is a Flemish nationalist, Eurosceptic and right-wing populist political party in the Flemish Region and Brussels Capital Region of Belgium. It is widely considered by the media and political analysts to be on the polit ...
, the largest right wing party of
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 ...
. In November 2006, Dedecker founded the right-liberal thinkthank ''Cassandra''. On 30 November 2006 it was announced that Dedecker joined the
New Flemish Alliance The New Flemish Alliance ( ; N-VA) is a Flemish Movement, Flemish nationalist, Conservatism, conservative Political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. The party was established in 2001 by the right-leaning faction of the centrist-na ...
(N-VA) on behalf of the N-VA party board, because it proved difficult in Belgium to meet the electoral threshold of 5% with a new party. The
Christian Democratic and Flemish Christian Democratic and Flemish (, ; CD&V) is a Flemish Christian-democratic political party in Belgium. The party has historical ties to both trade unionism ( ACV) and trade associations ( UNIZO) and the Farmer's League. Until 2001, the party w ...
party (CD&V), with whom the N-VA had an electoral cartel agreement, stated they didn't want to be in league with Dedecker and broke off the association. On 9 December 2006, the N-VA party congress decided they preferred the cartel with CD&V over Dedecker; afterwards Dedecker resigned from the party he joined only ten days earlier.


Belgian cycling doping affair

In September 2006, Dedecker told the press that he had the names of three Belgian cyclists, who went to Italy for illegal doping treatments. In January 2007, Belgian cyclist
Johan Museeuw Johan Museeuw (born 13 October 1965) is a retired Belgian professional road bicycle racer, road racing cyclist who was a professional from 1988 until 2004. Nicknamed ''The Lion of Flanders'', he was particularly successful in the cobbled classic ...
admitted that he took stimulants during the last years of his cycling career, and that he confided this earlier to Dedecker. The newspaper ''
Het Laatste Nieuws (''HLN''; ; in English ''The Latest News'') is a Dutch-language newspaper based in Antwerp, Belgium. It was founded by Julius Hoste Sr. on 7 June 1888. It is now part of DPG Media, and is the most popular newspaper in Flanders and Belgium. H ...
'' claimed on the basis of various accounts of people close to Quick Step-Innergetic manager Patrick Lefevere, that Lefevere has pushed cyclists to use illegal stimulants. Lefevere is now suing Dedecker for €75,000 over his earlier allegations about doping use among Belgian cyclists. The information Dedecker gave in September 2006 led to house searches throughout Belgium in June 2007 of persons related to cycling. The judiciary found various illegal substances during the search.


LDD

On 3 January 2007, Dedecker announced that he would set up a new political party. On 4 January 2007, Dedecker explained his plans by stating that he wanted to be the Flemish party political equivalent of
Geert Wilders Geert Wilders (born 6 September 1963) is a Dutch politician who has led the far-right Party for Freedom (PVV) since he founded it in 2006. He is also the party's leader in the House of Representatives. Wilders is best known for his right-wing p ...
and
Pim Fortuyn Wilhelmus Simon Petrus Fortuijn, known as Pim Fortuyn (; 19 February 1948 – 6 May 2002), was a Dutch politician, author, civil servant, businessman, sociologist and academic who founded the party Pim Fortuyn List (Lijst Pim Fortuyn or LPF) in ...
. He called his project a healthy right-wing political formation. On 6 January, a preparatory meeting was held in Ostend with some sympathizers, including Boudewijn Bouckaert (ex-VLD), former mayor of Ledegem Paul Vanhie, Walter Govaert, former alderman of Keerbergen John Lambrechts (also ex-VLD) and Saïd Bouharrak, a consultant of Belgian- Moroccan descent. Dedecker officially presented his new party on 19 January 2007. In the
2007 Belgian federal election Federal elections were held in Belgium on 10 June 2007. Voters went to the polls in order to elect new members for the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, Chamber of Representatives and Belgian Senate, Senate. Eligible voters were Belgium, Belg ...
, he was elected to the House of Representatives for his new party. In October 2009 he published the book ''Headscarf or Blindfold'' in which he criticized mass migration and advance of Islam in Europe. Following the
2010 Belgian federal election Federal elections were held in Belgium on 13 June 2010, during the midst of the 2007-11 Belgian political crisis. After the fall of the previous Leterme II Government over the withdrawal of Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats (Open VLD) from the ...
, Dedecker resigned as leader of the LDD and stepped down from national politics.


Return to politics

On 14 October 2018, Dedecker was elected as mayor of Middelkerke. In the
2019 Belgian federal election Federal elections were held in Belgium on 26 May 2019, alongside the country's European and regional elections. All 150 members of the Chamber of Representatives were elected from eleven multi-member constituencies. The far right-wing Vlaams ...
, he stood for the
West Flanders West Flanders is the westernmost province of the Flemish Region, in Belgium. It is the only coastal Belgian province, facing the North Sea to the northwest. It has land borders with the Dutch province of Zeeland to the northeast, the Flemis ...
constituency as an independent candidate affiliated to the N-VA's list. He was elected with 40,781 preferential votes and sat as an independent in the Chamber of Representatives. In October 2020, Dedecker stated in an interview that he will resign from parliament as he wanted to give priority to his mayorship.Jean-Marie Dedecker vertrekt uit de Kamer, maar nog niet meteen
Knack, 23 oktober 2020.


References


External links


Official site (in Dutch)

Artsite of his son (in Dutch)
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dedecker, Jean-Marie 1952 births Members of the 52nd Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 55th Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 56th Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Members of the 53rd Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Belgian libertarians Belgian male judoka Belgian sports coaches Flemish politicians Libertair, Direct, Democratisch MEPs Libertair, Direct, Democratisch politicians Living people MEPs for Belgium 2009–2014 New Flemish Alliance politicians Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats politicians People from Nieuwpoort, Belgium 20th-century Belgian sportsmen