Paul Magnette

His parents met in Leuven when they were students and then they moved to Charleroi, to the multi-cultural working class district of Marchienne-au-Pont. His mother, a lawyer, was always very involved in social issues. His father, a doctor, created the first medical centres in Belgium.[4] With communist parents, driven by the post-May 68 struggles, Paul Magnette grew up in a resolutely left-wing political environment. Together they founded "L'autre Maison" in Roux, a place where the most disadvantaged could find doctors, lawyers, physiotherapists and nurses.[5] His father died of an illness at the young age of 39. Paul Magnette was just 17 years old at the time, the eldest of two brothers and a sister.[6]

His first political involvement was his participation in 1985 in the "Touche pas à mon pote" (Hands off my pal!) campaign organised by SOS Racisme (an anti-racist movement).[7]

He first considered studying journalism, but then opted to study political science.[4] At the end of his studies, he devoted his dissertation, published in 1995,[8] to the poet Pier Paolo Pasolini.[9]

After the legislative elections of 10 June 2007, Elio Di Rupo, who was then President of the Walloon Socialist Party, asked Paul Magnette to take on a mediation role in the town of Charleroi, where several members of the college of aldermen had been charged. He managed to obtain the resignation of the persons who had been charged and reached a new majority agreement. Several weeks later, he became the Minister for Health, Social Action and Equal Opportunity for Wallonia.

Five months later, on 21 December 2007, Paul Magnette was appointed Federal Minister for Climate and Energy, which included sustainable development and the environment in his responsibilities, in the government Verhofstadt III and the first Leterme government.[3] With this federal scope of activities, Paul Magnette re-established the balance of power between the State and the multinational Electrabel in the battle over the "nuclear rent": after a long power struggle, he obtained a contribution from the nuclear energy producers to the federal budget to compensate the accelerated amortization of the nuclear power plants. Contested by the nuclear power producers, this contribution was validated, after three years of legal disputes, by the Constitutional Court, with the Ministry of Energy winning the case.[11] This contribution facilitated a major investment in offshore wind turbines,[12] on the one hand and a significant social energy policy on the other hand.[13]

As the initiator of the "Environmental Spring" project,[14] he encouraged the different regions to coordinate their environmental policies and combat global warming more effectively. He represented Belgium at the Copenhagen Conference where he pleaded energetically for ambitious goals in the fight against global warming.[15] President of the Council of Ministers for Energy and Climate of the European Union during the Belgian presidency in 2010, he urged notably that the European Union pledge to reach 100% renewable energy by 2050. To this end, he initiated collaboration among nine European countries aimed at creating the largest offshore wind turbine park in the world.[16] At the time of the legislative elections of 13 June 2010, he was head of the list for the Socialist Party in the Senate, which recorded an increase of three points and two elected candidates; Paul Magnette's personal result was 264,167 votes, which made it one of the largest ‘voting machines’ of the country, and made him ‘Man of the Year’ for the magazine Le Vif.[17]

After a long period of political crisis, the federal government of Elio Di Rupo was finally established on 6 December 2011. Paul Magnette then became Federal Minister for Public Works, Scientific Policy and Development Cooperation. In particular, in this role, he obtained limits on salaries of senior executives of state-owned companies, thereby restoring an ethical code at the heart of the economy.[18]

At the municipal elections of 14 October 2012, he ran as head of the Socialist Party list in Charleroi and he won an absolute majority of 30 out of 52 seats and was thus elected as mayor with more than 24,000 nominative votes.[19] He was re-elected for a second term of office in October 2018.[20]

He presented a project for the town focused on revitalizing historical urban centers, soft mobility, supporting culture as a tool for revitalization and reinforcing nature in the city. Inspired by the successful experiments run by the socialist mayors of Antwerp and Ghent, he created the post of ‘Bouwmeester communal’ (municipal master builder),[21] a first for Wallonia. Georgios Maïllis was appointed to this position in 2013 and was reappointed for a second term in 2018 in order to lead a series of architectural and urban sites as well as cultural and graphic arts projects.

A vast restructuration project in the north-west sector of the town centre, called Charleroi's Creative District, was launched in June 2014 with support from the European Regional Development Fund.[22] The goal is the development of a training campus for life-long learning covering all ages. As for the down-town area, it is subject to a perimeter of urban land consolidation creating a mixed district of offices and residential buildings in a vast perimeter composed of residential tower blocks and an administrative city, adjoining the renovated zone around the Rive Gauche commercial centre.[23] These two projects make the transformation of Charleroi one of the most important urban renovation sites in Europe.[24]

In March 2017, Paul Magnette presented the Plan CATCH Catalysts for Charleroi, coordinated by Thomas Dermine, targeting the growth of employment in the Charleroi region between 2017 and 2025, and the creation of 10,000 jobs on the redeveloped site of Caterpillar at Gosselies.[25] Paul Magnette obtained permission for this project following a prolonged struggle with the American multinational company, with the restitution of the site being free of cost in order to allow it to be restructured. Several sectors will be developed or reinforced, such as the airport and logistics activities, creativity sector, digital sector, healthcare, and the Biopark centre of excellence devoted to different biotechnologies.[26] The emphasis of the presence of nature in the city is the other leading project of the 2018-2024 legislature,[27] covering the restructuring of the banks of the river Sambre, the intensification of nature zones and the development of a food belt within the framework of the metropolis.[28] The fight against child poverty is also at the very heart of the town project: Paul Magnette has introduced free pre-school and after-school care in schools and instituted free meals for children in kindergarten.[29]

The participation of the citizen is at the heart of municipal policy. The town has set up a citizens’ municipal council, participatory councils and district intermediaries and has even increased the participatory budgets. Within the scope of the economic consequences of the COVID-19 pandemic, in June 2020, the municipality decided that every inhabitant would receive the equivalent in local currency, the Carol’Or, of 20 euro. An amount of 4 million euro has been released, thus making the Carol’Or the most widespread local currency in Europe.[30]

After the regional elections of 25 May 2014, Paul Magnette became Minister-President of the Government of Wallonia.[31]

In October 2016, on behalf of the Belgian government and at the end of several sessions of discussions, reflections and hearings, he opposed the signing of CETA (Comprehensive Economic and Trade Agreement) between the European Union and Canada,[32] thereby blocking the ratification process which postponed the European Union-Canada summit during which the treaty was to be officially signed on 27 October 2016, to the great displeasure of the other members of the European Union and of Canada.[33] Several foreign media channels made reference to the speech he gave in the Walloon Parliament on 14 October 2016, particularly in France[34] where he was the subject of a special programme on the Arte channel.[35]

On 28 July 2017, Paul Magnette was obliged to leave his position after a reversal of the alliance. He chose to abandon his position as a Walloon deputy in order to continue his role as mayor of Charleroi, thereby respecting his pledge with regard to not holding a dual mandate.

In October 2019, Paul Magnette, the only candidate, was elected President of the Socialist Party by the militants with 95.4% of the votes cast.[36]

After Belgium had had no Federal Government for 164 days, King Philippe entrusted Paul Magnette with the task of gathering information in order to establish a majority coalition.[37] Submitting his final report to the sovereign during an audience at the royal palace on 9 December, he requested that he be released from his mission, considering that he had done the groundwork for convergence and solutions.[38]

On 20 July 2020, Paul Magnette was entrusted – together with the President of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA), Bart De Wever – by King Philippe "to take necessary initiatives leading to the establishment of a government based on a broad parliamentary majority".[38] This mission, entrusted to the leaders of the first francophone party and the first Flemish party, resembles the role of a ‘formateur’ without the term being used explicitly, and while the government was not handling every day affairs, which constituted a most unusual state of affairs. Paul Magnette indicated that he had given himself 50 days to complete the task and his priorities were the preparation of an emergency plan in case there was another wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, a relaunch plan to ensure the transition of the economy after the health crisis, the consolidation of social security and the clarification of the institutional system.[39]

On 25 September 2020, the Belgian monarch put Paul Magnette and the Deputy Prime Minister of the Dutch-speaking Federal Liberal party, Alexander De Croo, in charge of forming the new federal government, based on the "Vivaldi coalition" which brings together socialists, Christian democrats (Flemish party only), liberals and the green party.[40] The negotiations were completed six days later and the federal government was established on 1 October 2020.[41]