Paul Magnette

Paul Magnette (born 28 June 1971) is a Belgian politician. Since 2019, he is the leader of the Socialist Party, social democratic French-speaking party in Belgium. Since 2012, he is also mayor of Charleroi. At academic level, he is a former political science professor at the Free University of Brussels (ULB) and Director of the Institute of European Studies of the ULB. He was appointed minister in the Belgian federal government from 2007 to 2013 and was Minister-President of Wallonia from 2014 to 2017. He also was a member of the Senate of Belgium, of the Parliament of Wallonia and of the Parliament of the French Community. Born on 28 June 1971 in Leuven, he grew up in Charleroi and studied political science at ULB – Free University of Brussels (1989–1994) and at Cambridge University (1994–1995). He was a researcher at the FNRS - Scientific Research Fund (1995–2001) and obtained a PhD in 1999 with a dissertation Citoyenneté et construction européenne. His research interest is on institutional policies, the European Union, and theories of democracy. In 2000, together with Éric Remacle, he was awarded the Exceptional Francqui Prize for European Research. In 2001, he was appointed professor of political science at ULB and Director of the Institute of European Studies. He also teaches at the Paris Institute of Political Studies and has been a visiting professor at several European and North American universities. He is the author of numerous publications and is the recipient of several scientific awards. He is also a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium. On 20 July 2007, Magnette became minister for Health, Social Action and Equal Opportunity of the Walloon government. On 21 December 2007, he became minister for Climate and Energy in the Verhofstadt III federal government. He held the post in the Leterme I Government and held the same post of minister for Climate and Energy in the Van Rompuy I Government, which took office on 30 December 2008, and in the Leterme II Government (25 November 2009 to on 5 December 2011).