A gay prime minister takes control of Belgium
Christophe Cordier Monday, December 5, 2011 at 5:32 p.m. |
PORTRAIT. For the first time in its history, Belgium will be led by an assumed gay. Elio Di Rupo will lead a diverse coalition involving socialists, liberals and centrists. The newly formed government will be sworn in Tuesday.
It became a Belgian joke. Today, 540 days after a visit to the polls in June 2010, the Belgians finally have a government. At its head, a man who has earned a stature of a statesman and a reputation as a strategist over these long months of negotiation: Elio Di Rupo. .
Italian immigrants
It was far from being won. For the current mayor of Mons is not only the first openly gay Prime Minister of the country's history. It is also the first time a man from an immigrant access this feature. And it is still the first time in more than 30 years that a French took control of Belgium. It has the defect of being more socialist while Flanders voting right.
60 years old, Elio Di Rupo born in an Italian family immigrated to Belgium to work in the mines. The father died when the little old Elio is barely a year. It will be raised by his mother and older sister. After a PhD in chemistry, he entered politics and exercise various senior positions from the 80's. Since 1999, he chaired the French PS.
Coming out in 2001
In a country where the press respects the privacy of the elect, his homosexuality was unknown to the public until 1996. A young pathological liar accused of child molestation when he was Minister. Belgium at the time was shaken by the Dutroux affair, and a climate of witch hunt. The scandal has failed to push for the resignation (it was also hoped that some members of government). Finally cleared, it will hurt. In a recently published biography, he tells the magistrate who treated his file had told his lawyer "it is perhaps not a pedophile, but it's still gay."
In 2001, Di Rupo officially out of the closet in the magazine of the Federation of Flemish associations of homosexuals. "I think it is good that I speak now, even if it is difficult, since this might promote greater equality between people," he said. In his biography, he tells a reporter questioned him and asked him if he was gay. He answered "yes, so what?".
Prim
Since then, Elio Di Rupo saw his homosexuality in a discreet manner. Brussels revelers sometimes the opportunity to see it in bars or clubs downtown. But he never appeared in public as a couple is officially married. The man is very concerned about his image. Her hair is always uniformly black and everyone knows he has used plastic surgery to remove some wrinkles. Always dressed to the nines, he has made his trademark bow tie. When he leaves this uniform, it makes the sport in a room trendy and gay-friendly in the capital. Last year, he had a sensation to the press by opening the pool of Mons only wearing his bathing suit, then doing a few laps, an exercise that few ministers of his age could do without being ridiculous.
There are two and a half years before the next election. An eternity in a country where coalitions are always fragile and where each file can become explosive. Conflict between community and fiscal austerity, the life of Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo will not be plain sailing.
Photo: AFP
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