Robert Urbain (24 November 1930 – 9 November 2018) was a Belgian politician who served as

Minister of State Minister of state is a designation for a government minister, with varying meanings in different jurisdictions. In a number of European countries, the title is given as an honorific conferring a higher rank, often bestowed upon senior minister ...

from 1998.

Career

A certified teacher of secondary education in

mathematics Mathematics is a field of study that discovers and organizes methods, Mathematical theory, theories and theorems that are developed and Mathematical proof, proved for the needs of empirical sciences and mathematics itself. There are many ar ...

and

physics Physics is the scientific study of matter, its Elementary particle, fundamental constituents, its motion and behavior through space and time, and the related entities of energy and force. "Physical science is that department of knowledge whi ...

, Robert Urbain began his professional career in 1950 as a

mathematics teacher In contemporary education, mathematics education—known in Europe as the didactics or pedagogy of mathematics—is the practice of teaching, learning, and carrying out scholarly research into the transfer of mathematical knowledge. Although r ...

in École normale ( Normal school) in

Mons Mons commonly refers to: * Mons, Belgium, a city in Belgium * Mons pubis (mons Venus or mons veneris), in mammalian anatomy, the adipose tissue lying above the pubic bone * Mons (planetary nomenclature), a sizable extraterrestrial mountain * Batt ...

. In 1958, he joined the provincial administration of Hainaut, where he held various positions until 1971, the year he was elected deputy for the Mons constituency. He held this mandate until 1995, and then served as an elected senator from 1995 to 1999. At the local level, he was mayor of

Boussu Boussu (; ) is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. As of January 1, 2006, Boussu had a population of 20,058. The total area is 20.01 km2, which gives a population density of 1,002 inhabitants per km2. T ...

from 1977 to 2006. In June 2006, he was appointed Belgian Commissioner General for the 2010 World Expo in Shanghai. In August 2009, he resigned from this position in a tense atmosphere, just as the

cornerstone A cornerstone (or foundation stone or setting stone) is the first stone set in the construction of a masonry Foundation (engineering), foundation. All other stones will be set in reference to this stone, thus determining the position of the entir ...

for the Belgian pavilion was about to be laid, and was replaced by his deputy, Leo Delcroix. In February 2011, in the context of the

Arab revolutions The Arab Spring () was a series of anti-government protests, uprisings, and armed rebellions that spread across much of the Arab world in the early 2010s. It began in Tunisia in response to corruption and economic stagnation. From Tunisia, ...

Tunisia Tunisia, officially the Republic of Tunisia, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It is bordered by Algeria to the west and southwest, Libya to the southeast, and the Mediterranean Sea to the north and east. Tunisia also shares m ...

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

, and

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, controversy resurfaced in the press regarding alleged ties between

Colonel Gaddafi Muammar Muhammad Abu Minyar al-Gaddafi (20 October 2011) was a Libyan military officer, revolutionary, politician and political theorist who ruled Libya from 1969 until his assassination by Libyan rebel forces in 2011. He came to power ...

and the politician from

Borinage The Borinage () is an area in the Walloon province of Hainaut in Belgium. The name derives from the coal mines of the region, ''bores'', meaning mineshafts. In French, the inhabitants of the Borinage are called Borains. The provincial capit ...

References

1930 births 2018 deaths 20th-century Belgian politicians 21st-century Belgian politicians Postal services ministers of Belgium Trade ministers of Belgium {{Belgium-mayor-stub