en Vincent Van Quickenborne

Vincent Van Quickenborne
Vincent Van Quickenborne
	Van Quickenborne in 2009
Minister of Justice and the North Sea
	In office; 1 October 2020 – 20 October 2023
Prime Minister	Alexander De Croo
Preceded by	Koen Geens (Minister of Justice); Philippe De Backer (Minister of the North Sea)
Succeeded by	Paul Van Tigchelt
Mayor of Kortrijk
	Incumbent
	Assumed office ; 1 February 2013
Preceded by	Stefaan De Clerck
Personal details
Born	1 August 1973 (age 51); Ghent, Belgium
Political party	People's Union (1997-2001); Spirit (2001-2002); Open VLD (since 2002)
Alma mater	Catholic University of Leuven

Vincent Paul Marie Van Quickenborne (born 1 August 1973) is a Belgian politician of the Open Flemish Liberals and Democrats who served as Minister of Justice in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo from 2020 to 2023.

Background

Van Quickenborne was born in Ghent. He attended Sint-Barbaracollege, a public Jesuit school in Ghent and went on to study law at the Catholic University of Leuven/Louvain (KU Leuven). He then practised at the Kortrijk/Courtrai bar.^[1]

Political career

Van Quickenborne was a Senator (1999-2003), Secretary of State (junior minister) responsible for the simplification of the administration (2003–2007), Minister for entrepreneurship and simplification (2008–2011), Deputy Prime Minister and Pensions Minister (2011–2012), Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Justice and North Sea (2020-2023). He was a member of the Chamber of Representatives (2003, 2007-2008, 2010-2011 and 2012-2020). Since 2013 he has been mayor of Kortrijk.^[2]

As Pensions Minister, he was responsible for pushing controversial pension reforms through Parliament. He then left the Government to become mayor of Kortrijk, returning as Minister of Justice in 2022.^[1] In September 2022 he was the subject of a kidnap plot, reported to be linked to drug criminals. A car containing firearms was found outside his house, and his security was stepped up.^[3] In September 2023 Van Quickenborne was involved in a scandal dubbed "pipigate" by the media when CCTV footage emerged of guests at his 50th birthday party urinating on a police van belonging to his protection detail. He apologised to Parliament and denied having joked about the incident.^[4]

In October 2023, Van Quickenborne resigned as Minister of Justice after the 2023 Brussels shooting; by stepping down, he took political responsibility for Belgian authorities not having complied with a request from Tunisia to extradite the attacker, Abdesalam Lassoued, in August 2022.^[5]