King Albert II, King of Belgium
King Albert II was born in Brussels, at the Chateau of Stuyvenberg, on 6 June 1934.
King Albert II, who was given the title of "Prince of Liège" on birth, is the son of King Leopold III nd of Queen Astrid, born Princess of Sweden. He is the grandson of King Albert I and of Queen Elisabeth.
On 29 August 1935, the Prince of Liège lost his mother, Queen Astrid, who died in a car accident at Küssnacht, Switzerland.
On 10 May 1940, at the time when Belgium was being invaded, Prince Albert, his elder sister Princess Josephine-Charlotte and his elder brother Prince Baudouin, left the country for France and later Spain. The Prince and the Princess returned to Belgium on 2 August 1940. They continued their studies until 1944, either at Laeken, or at the Chateau of Ciergnon in the Ardennes. In June 1944, at the time of the Allied landings, Leopold III, Princess Lilian - who he married in 1941 - and the royal children were deported by the Germans to Hirschstein in Germany, and later to Strobl in Austria, where they were liberated by the American Army on 7 May 1945. Due to the political situation in Belgium, King Leopold and his family moved to the villa "Le Reposoir" in Pregny, Switzerland, when they left Austria in October 1945. They would stay there until July 1950. During that time, Prince Albert would continue his education in a secondary school in Geneva.
King Leopold III, accompanied by Prince Baudouin and Prince Albert, returned to Belgium on 22 July 1950.
On 2 July 1959, Prince Albert married Donna Paola Ruffo di Calabria, born of a princely family in Italy. King Albert II and Queen Paola have three children: Prince Philippe (born on 15 April 1960), Princess Astrid (born on 5 June 1962) and Prince Laurent (born on 19 October 1963).
Prince Albert was asked in 1962 to exercise the function of Honorary President of the Board of Directors of the Belgian Foreign Trade Office, which he performed for 31 years. In this capacity, he presided over a hundred trade missions throughout the world and made many visits to Belgian companies operating in the export field.
To pay tribute to the Prince who made such an active contribution to boosting foreign trade over all those years, a Prince Albert Fund for training foreign trade specialists was set up in 1984.
Moreover, Prince Albert also assumed the Presidency of the Board of the Caisse Générale d'Epargne et de Retraite from 1954 to 1992. He was President of the Belgian Red Cross from 1958 to 1993.
Apart from these various functions, Prince Albert carried out actions in the field of town planning, housing, nature conservation, listed monuments and sites, and in general, management of the environment. In this context, he has presided or attended many international conferences. In 1969, he was invited by the Council of Europe to assume the Presidency of the European Ministerial Conference on the protection of the cultural and architectural heritage.
After the death of his brother, King Baudouin, Prince Albert was sworn in before the combined chambers of parliament on 9 August 1993 as the sixth King of the Belgians.
Herman Van Rompuy, Prime Minister of Belgium
http://www.premier.be/fr/minister/herman-van-rompuy
Guy Verhofstadt, Former Prime Minister of Belgium
Born in 1953 in Dendermonde, he became president of the Flemish Liberal Student's Union (1972-1974) while studying law in Ghent. He quickly became the secretary of Willy De Clercq, who was at that time the president of the Flemish liberal party (PVV). In 1982, at age 29, he became president of the party. In 1985 he was elected into the Chamber of Deputies, and became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Budget under Prime Minister Wilfried Martens. Because of his economic views and his young age, he became known as "Baby Thatcher". Another nickname from that era is "da joenk", a Brabantian dialect expression meaning "that kid" (in a pejorative sense, referring to his rather iconoclastic and immature style).
After being ousted from government he became leader of the opposition. After a failed attempt to form a government in November 1991, he changed the PVV into the Vlaamse Liberalen en Democraten (VLD). This new party attracted many politicians from other parties, notably from the Volksunie (VU) and the Christelijke Volkspartij (CVP).
However, despite the fact that many had high expectations, the party did not manage to outstrip the CVP. Verhofstadt resigned and disappeared from the political scene, only to return to the party's presidency in 1997 with a less radical image. He gradually moved away from neo-liberalism, and became more of a centrist figure, a change which especially became clear during his first term as Prime Minister. Many concur that his shift of gear was a necessary transition, as his ambitions to become Prime Minister required a milder attitude. He himself has never admitted, but insiders claim that he still regrets having had to take a distance from his original, real views.
