Leo Delcroix (21 November 1949 – 2 November 2022) was a Belgian Flemish politician. He was a member of the Christian People's Party (CVP).

Biography

Political career

Delcroix earned a degree in classical philology from the

University of Antwerp The University of Antwerp () is a major Belgian university located in the city of Antwerp. The official abbreviation is ''UAntwerp''. The University of Antwerp has about 20,000 students, which makes it the third-largest university in Flanders. ...

, a law degree from

KU Leuven KU Leuven (Katholieke Universiteit Leuven) is a Catholic research university in the city of Leuven, Leuven, Belgium. Founded in 1425, it is the oldest university in Belgium and the oldest university in the Low Countries. In addition to its mai ...

, and later studied economics at the Limburg Universitair Centrum. In 1984, he became national secretary of the CVP and served as a in the

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

from 1991 to 1995. On 7 March 1992, he became

Minister of Defense A ministry of defence or defense (see spelling differences), also known as a department of defence or defense, is the part of a government responsible for matters of defence and military forces, found in states where the government is divid ...

within the , a mandate in which he suspended mandatory conscription. He also carried out reforms within the

Belgian Armed Forces The Belgian Armed Forces (; , ) are the combined national military forces of Belgium. The Monarchy of Belgium, King of the Belgians is the commander-in-chief of the Armed Forces. The Belgian Armed Forces was established after Belgium Belgian Rev ...

with a considerable reduction in the number of soldiers, weapons, and barracks and froze the military budget for five years. He was a founding member of the

Eurocorps Eurocorps (, ), located in the French city of Strasbourg (Bas-Rhin), is a multinational corps headquarters. Founded by France and Germany in 1992, it is today composed of personnel from six framework nations and five associated nations. The fram ...

and increasingly deployed the Belgian Armed Forces for operations in Yugoslavia, Somalia, and Rwanda. In 1995, Delcroix was elected to 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 ...

, where he remained until 1999. He was also appointed a , a position he held from June 1995 to June 1999. During that time, he was also a within the Senate. Delcroix was considered to be on the right side of the CVP and repeatedly questioned the '' cordon sanitaire'' within the ''

Vlaams Blok Vlaams Blok (, VB; ) was the name of a Belgian far-right and secessionist political party with an anti-immigration platform.Erk, 2005, pp. 493-502. Its ideologies embraced Flemish nationalism, calling for the independence of Flanders. The part ...

''. In 1999, he retired from politics.

After politics

In January 2001, Delcroix became director of the

Maastricht School of Management The Maastricht School of Management (MSM) is a management school in Maastricht, the Netherlands. From 1 September 2022 MSM is part of the School of Business and Economics (SBE) of Maastricht University. MSM's activities in the fields of educatio ...

. He resigned in October 2003 following his criminal conviction for his role in the "Milieubox affair". He received a boarding premium of 150,000 euros. In April 2010, Delcroix succeeded as vice-chairman of , a position he held until 2020. In September 2010, he succeeded Theo Kelchtermans as chairman of Hasselt University. He resigned in October 2019 due to health concerns and was succeeded by Jo Vandeurzen.

Controversies

In November 1994, Delcroix was criticized over his ownership of a villa in

Bormes-les-Mimosas Bormes-les-Mimosas (; ) is a commune in the Var department, Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur Region, southeastern France. It has a Mediterranean climate. Bormes-les-Mimosas is a city in bloom and won the 2003 Gold Medal awarded by the Entente Flor ...

, France, and

unreported employment Unreported employment, also known as unlawful employment, illegal employment, working under the table or off the books is employment that is illegal and not reported to the government. The employer or the employee often does so for tax evasion ...

for workers who were employed at the residence. After the insistence of CVP party leader

Johan Van Hecke Johan Jozef Marie Clara Van Hecke (born 2 December 1954 in Ghent) is a Belgian politician and Member of the European Parliament for Flanders with the Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten, part of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe and ...

, he resigned from his role as Minister of Defense. Delcroix was mentioned in multiple judicial investigations related to illegal party financing, such as the affair, the affair, and the . However, he was not officially charged in most cases. However, he was found guilty by a tribunal of first instance in 2003 of for his role in the Milieubox affair. On 30 June 2004, he was acquitted by a

court of appeal An appellate court, commonly called a court of appeal(s), appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to Hearing (law), hear a Legal case, case upon appeal from a trial court or other ...

because the offenses were time-barred. In 2013, Delcroix was again accused of misconduct in relation to the Belgian delegation at

Expo 2010 Expo 2010, officially the Expo 2010 Shanghai China, was held on both banks of the Huangpu River in Shanghai, China, from 1 May to 31 October 2010. It was a major World Expo registered by the Bureau International des Expositions (BIE), in the ...

in Shanghai, for which he was questioned by the

Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those ...

. The Court stated in 2013 that "so many rules were broken that control of the finances was simply impossible". Despite this, he was appointed Commissioner General for

Expo 2015 Expo 2015 was a World's fair, World Expo hosted by Milan, Italy. It opened on May 1 at 10:00 Central European Summer Time, CEST and closed on October 31. Milan hosted an exposition for the second time; the first was the 1906 Milan Internation ...

in Milan two years later. The Court of Audit again criticized the management of the Belgian delegation at the Expo in 2017.

Death

Leo Delcroix died on 2 November 2022, at the age of 72.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Delcroix, Leo 1949 births 2022 deaths Members of the Senate (Belgium) Members of the Flemish Parliament Ministers of defence of Belgium 20th-century Belgian politicians Christian Democratic and Flemish politicians University of Antwerp alumni KU Leuven alumni People from Kalmthout Belgian bloggers Hasselt University alumni Academic staff of Hasselt University