Pieter De Crem
Pieter Frans Norbert Jozef Raymond De Crem (born July 22, 1962 in Aalter) is a Belgian, Flemish politician and member of Christian Democratic and Flemish (CD&V). He is the current Minister of Defense in the Belgian federal government, i.e. the Leterme I Government, which took office on March 20, 2008. [1] He has been a Member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives since 1995. He headed the CD&V fraction in the Chamber of Representatives from 2003 to 2007. Since 1995, he has been the Mayor of Aalter, in East Flanders.
De Crem became the Belgian minister of defence on December 21, 2007.
Education
Master of Romanic Philology at KUL – Katholieke Universiteit Leuven ( Flemish-speaking Catholic University of Leuven ) Master of European and international Law at VUB –Vrije Universiteit Brussel ( Flemish -speaking Free University of Brussels )
Language proficiency: Pieter De Crem is Dutch native speaker. He speaks and writes fluently in French, English, German, Spanisch, Italian and Portuguese. He also has a basic ability of Russian.
Controversy
De Crem has faced criticism for visiting a New York City, United States bar on taxpayer money claiming it was for a United Nations meeting. However, his own aides admitted they knew the meeting was cancelled. [2] Allso, while head of defence of the Belgian state, De Crem never served in the army, he was exused of conscription by medical reasons. He is currently mayor of Aalter, like his father before him. This results in the Aalter town hall being calles 'the Cremlin'.
References
- ^ "20 March 2008 – Royal Orders. Government – Dismissals – Appointments" (PDF) (in Dutch/French). The Belgian Official Journal. 2008-03-21. pp. pp. 3–4. Retrieved 2008-03-30.
{{cite web}}:|pages=has extra text (help); Check date values in:|date=(help)CS1 maint: unrecognized language (link) - ^ "When Everyone Is A Blogger, Nothing You Say Is Off The Record". Techcrunch. 2008-11-28.
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External links
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