Guy Coëme

Guy Coëme ( born August 21, 1946 in Bettincourt, Waremme, Liège Province) is a Belgian politician of the Parti Socialiste (PS ), who was among other things, Prime Minister of the Walloon Region of Belgium and Minister of Defense. Since 2006 he has been Mayor of Waremme.

Life

Minister, resignation and conviction for the Agusta affair

After schooling Coëme studied political science at the University of Liège and completed his licentiate with honors.

In 1981 he was State Secretary in the Government of Wallonia, where he was responsible for environment, water policy and spatial planning. On 8 November 1981, he was first elected as a candidate of the PS as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, and was one of these on until 19 April 1996.

On February 3, 1988, he was the successor of Melchior Wathelet, as Prime Minister of the Walloon region, however, occupy this position, only a little more than three months until his replacement by Bernard Anselme on 11 May 1988.

Shortly before Coëme was appointed on May 9 by Prime Minister Wilfried Martens as defense minister in the eighth cabinet. The secretary of defense, he has also served in the subsequent ninth government of Martens until 7 March 1992. In this function, he called after learning of the activities of the stay-behind organization Gladio in Italy own investigations in Belgium. This had to clarify the explicit order that the Belgian NATO's secret army was involved in the gang of Nijvel the massacre of Brabant. The Senators confirmed in their final public report that under the code name SDRA8 in the form of a sub-unit of military intelligence SGR (Service Général de Renseignement ) a stay-behind army in Belgium was active.

Subsequently, he was appointed on 7 March 1992 by Prime Minister Jean -Luc Dehaene in its first cabinet and was there until his resignation on January 23, 1994 Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Communications and Company and was for transport, telecommunications, mail, air traffic, the railway company Nationale Maatschappij responsibility of the Belgian railways / Société Nationale des Chemins de fer Belges ( NMBS / SNCB ) and the state telecommunications company Belgacom.

Reason for his resignation on 23 January 1994, the so-called Agusta affair, a corruption scandal in connection with combat helicopter purchases by the Belgian army by the Italian manufacturer Agusta in 1988. On December 23, 1998 Coëme was the Court of Cassation for corruption to imprisonment of 2 sentenced years probation and subject to a five-year ban on holding public office. Next to him, the politician Willy Claes, Franck Vandenbroucke and Guy Spitaels were convicted of involvement in the Agusta affair.

Political comeback

After this ban, he was elected Member of the Walloon Parliament in 2003 and received it with 20 766 votes broad support.

In the local elections of 4 December 2006, he was also elected mayor of Waremme and has held this post since then.

On June 10, 2007 Coëme importance was also re-elected as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives and is representing the constituency of Liège. He is both a member of the Committees on Finance and Budget as well as for auditing and deputy member of the committees on issues of trade and economic law, for the revision of the Constitution and the reform of the institutions and of Foreign Affairs. He is also a member of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE ) Parliamentary Assembly.