Hadja Lahbib
Lahbib in 2023
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Assumed office
15 July 2022
Prime MinisterAlexander De Croo
Preceded bySophie Wilmès
Personal details
Born (1970-06-21) 21 June 1970
Boussu, Belgium
Political partyMR
Occupation
  • Politician
  • Journalist
  • Presenter

Hadja Lahbib (born 21 June 1970) is a Belgian journalist, TV presenter, director and politician, serving as the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium since July 2022.

Early life

Hadja Lahbib was born on 21 June 1970 in Boussu, near the city of Mons, to a family of Algerian origin.[1]

Career as a journalist

Lahbib graduated in journalism from the Free University of Brussels and worked for a long time for the Belgian Radio-Television of the French Community (RTBF). In particular, she was a special correspondent in Afghanistan and the Middle East, and presented the television news for two decades. In May 2013, she presented the final of the Queen Elisabeth Competition, but she refused explicitly to mention the winner had Israeli nationality. She was also trapped by her colleague who let her comment on a non-existing symphony.[2][3]

Controversies

Lahbib visited politically disputed Crimea between Russia and Ukraine in July 2021.[4] She did not tell how exactly she got there and did not recognize Crimea as the territory of Ukraine.[4] She went to the "Global Values" festival, which is organized by the Sevastopol Academic Russian Drama Theater named after Lunacharsky and organized by Katerina Tikhonova daughter of Vladimir Putin.[5][6] In 2021, it was held on 23–25 July. On Instagram, she published fragments of a choreographic performance from the festival. After the trip, she was asked by RTBF was she coming back from Russia or Ukraine. Lahbib did not answer clearly, but said: "to land at Simferopol airport, you need a Russian visa."[7][8][9]

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Belgium

Discussion with the IAEA in 2022

Prior to her appointment as foreign minister on 15 July 2022, Lahbib was only politically active with the socialist organisation, Solidaris, and she was not a member of the liberal Reformist Movement (MR), whose leader Georges-Louis Bouchez unexpectedly nominated her for the post of Belgian Federal Minister for Foreign Affairs to replace Sophie Wilmès. She took the oath before King Philippe on the same day. At the press conference at which she was introduced, she said about her political position:

"I am not left, not right, but fundamentally free".[10][11]

After the interview, Georges-Louis Bouchez asked her to join MR, and she did so.

On 7 October 2022, Lahbib and two lawmakers – Darya Safai and Goedele Liekens – cut their hair in parliament, in solidarity with anti-government demonstrations in Iran triggered by the death in police custody of 22-year-old Mahsa Amini.[12]

On 26 November 2022, Lahbib and prime minister Alexander De Croo visited Ukraine.[13]

In June 2023, Lahbib won a vote of no-confidence in parliament after granting visas to delegations from Iranian and Russian cities to attend a mayors' convention in Brussels earlier that month. Her MR party had threatened to leave the government if she had to resign, which would have made the government collapse.[14]

Works

  • Afghanistan. Le choix des femmes. Éditions Racine, Brüssel 2008, ISBN 978-2-87386-581-8; Documentary 2007 (52 min.)
  • Le cou et la tête. – Documentary about the women's village Umoja in northern Kenya (26 min.)
  • Patience, patience, t'iras au paradis ! Film 2014

References

  1. ↑ "Hadja Lahbib, ministre des Affaires étrangères : "À cette proposition audacieuse, j'ai répondu par une audace"". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 30 July 2022.
  2. ↑ "Hadja Lahbib – Réalisatrice, Journaliste – Rédactrice – sur Cinergie.be". Cinergie.be. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  3. ↑ "Palestina-activisten niet te spreken over winst Israëlier van prestigieuze Koningin Elisabethwedstrijd". Joods Actueel. 28 June 2013.
  4. 1 2 "Нова глава МЗС Бельгії у 2021 році їздила в окупований Крим і відмовилася назвати його Україною". www.eurointegration.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  5. ↑ "Нова глава МЗС Бельгії у 2021 році їздила в окупований Крим і відмовилася назвати його Україною". www.eurointegration.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  6. ↑ "Crimean Plume. Ukraine Clashes with the Belgian Foreign Minister over a Visit to the Occupied Peninsula". European Pravda. 28 July 2022.
  7. ↑ "Нова глава МЗС Бельгії у 2021 році їздила в окупований Крим і відмовилася назвати його Україною". www.eurointegration.com.ua (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  8. ↑ "Це була моя робота": нова глава МЗС Бельгії відвідала Крим і назвала його "російським". Фокус (in Ukrainian). 20 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  9. ↑ "Нова міністерка закордонних справ Бельгії їздила до окупованого Криму у 2021–му і не називала його українським | Громадське телебачення". Hromadske (in Ukrainian). Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  10. ↑ "Hadja Lahbib devient ministre des Affaires étrangères : "Elle était mon premier et unique choix" précise Bouchez". RTBF (in French). Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  11. ↑ "Hadja Lahbib, nouvelle ministre des Affaires étrangères, a prêté serment devant le Roi (photos)". Le Soir (in French). 15 July 2022. Retrieved 25 July 2022.
  12. ↑ Charlotte Van Campenhout (7 October 2022), Belgian foreign minister cuts hair in parliament in support of Iranian women Reuters.
  13. ↑ "Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo in Ukraine". The Brussels Times. 27 November 2022. Retrieved 28 November 2022.
  14. ↑ Marine Strauss and Charlotte Van Campenhout (29 June 2023), Belgian foreign minister survives no-confidence vote in Parliament Reuters.

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