Yves Leterme

Yves Camille Désiré Leterme (born 6 October 1960 in Wervik) is a Belgian politician, a leader of the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V).

Yves Leterme was born on 6 October 1960 in the city of Wervik in the province of West Flanders.

He is half-Walloon, and grew up fluently bilingual.

He studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven where he received a LL.B. degree in 1981 and then studied at Ghent University where he obtained a BSc degree in Political Science (1983), a LL.M. degree (1984), and a MPA degree in 1985.

Before entering national politics, Leterme served as an auditor at the country's Court of Audit (Rekenhof, Cour des Comptes).

He then became adjunct and then national secretary of the Christian People's Party until he resigned to become a civil servant with the European Union.

He has been a member of the city council of Ypres since 1995.

He served as alderman of Ypres from 1995 to 2001.

In 1997, he went on indefinite leave from that position when he was appointed Member of the Belgian Parliament.

He was appointed to the Chamber of Representatives in 1997, elected in 1999 and 2003.

After the defeat of the CD&V in the general elections of 2003, he succeeded Stefaan De Clerck as party chairman.

In 2004 Yves Leterme became Minister-President of the Flemish government.

Flanders has fared well during his term in office.

Yves Leterme took a pragmatic course of increasing the economic dynamic and social wellbeing in Flanders.

He has made the Flemish government into the 'investment government', focusing the investments on the infrastructure and logistics with respect to both the business climate and social wellbeing (notably Flanders Port Area, homes for the elderly, child care, and immigrant integration).

To accelerate investment he has successfully encouraged the use of the PPP structures.

Additionally, Yves Leterme's government implemented rigorous budgeting – his government started with a sizeable implicit debt in Flanders which has been reduced to zero as the result of his policies.

In the elections held on 10 June 2007, Leterme received 796,521 personal votes, leading his party to a landslide victory.

This was the second highest number of personal votes ever in Belgium's national elections.

On 21 December 2007, he became Vice-Prime Minister of Belgium and Minister of Budget, Transport, Institutional Reform and the North Sea.

On 23 March, Leterme received confidence of the chamber as Prime Minister.

Leterme was the prime minister from March 2008 to December 2008.

He has been the minister of Foreign Affairs, deputy prime minister and minister of Budget, Institutional Reforms, Transport and the North Sea in the Belgian federal government.

He is a former minister-president of Flanders and Flemish minister of Agriculture and Fisheries.

Despite his French name, Leterme is Flemish.

He is fluent in Dutch, French and English.

On 14 July 2008, facing the imminent failure to meet a self-imposed deadline to enact "constitutional reform" consisting of further devolution of powers to the nation's three linguistic communities, Leterme tendered his resignation to King Albert II.

On 17 July, King Albert, after holding a flurry of consultations with leaders of political parties, labour unions, and the employers' association, rejected Leterme's resignation.

Instead, the King appointed a three-person commission of representatives of the linguistic communities to investigate how to restart the reform process.

The commission was to report to the King by 31 July 2008.

On 19 December 2008 he offered his resignation to King Albert II after a crisis surrounding the sale of Fortis to BNP Paribas.

On 22 December 2008 the King accepted his resignation, along with that of his entire government.

He remained Prime Minister until 30 December, when Herman Van Rompuy was appointed as his successor.

He was the prime minister of Belgium, from November 2009 to December 2011.

On 24 November 2009, it was announced that Leterme would once again become Prime Minister, succeeding Van Rompuy, who had been selected to become the first President of the European Council.

On 22 April 2010 he once again offered his resignation to King Albert II after a key Flemish party, the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats, withdrew its support for the coalition government.

An election followed in June, resulting in protracted attempts to negotiate a governing coalition.

Leterme remained as caretaker Prime Minister, but on 13 September 2011 announced that he would leave the post by the end of the year to take up the position of Deputy Secretary-General at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

On 6 December 2011 Leterme was finally succeeded as Prime Minister by Elio Di Rupo, ending the longest run of a caretaker government in the developed world.

The following day he was appointed to the honorary title of Minister of State.