Sabine de Bethune
Sabine de Bethune was born in Leopoldville (Belgian-Congo, now Kinshasa) on July 16th 1958. She is a Belgian politician and senator for the Christian Democratic and Flemish party (CD&V). In 2011 she became chairman of the Senate. In 2014 she was elected into the Flemish Parliament and again appointed president of the Senate. On October 2014 she was succeeded in this function by Christine Defraigne (Mouvement Réformateur)
Political career
Sabine had already showed an interest in politics during her student period. After she graduated she worked as a lawyer, but at the same time she was local district president of the CVP- women. From 1985 to 1987 she worked in the Cabinet of Flemish Minister Paul Deprez and from 1987 to 1995 in the cabinet of CVP - minister Miet Smet. She first ran for political function in the 1994 European elections. Sabine was elected senator di-rectly by the Dutch electoral college in 1995 and reelected in 1999 and 2003. In 2007 she became vice-president of the Senate (the first female vice-president). In October 2011 she became presi-dent of the Senate and in 2014 again.
Notable works
Education
Sabine de Bethune obtained her Master’s in Law from the Catholic University of Leuven (KULeu-ven). During her student years she became a member of CVP-Jongeren (now JONGCD&V), the youth delegation of CD&V.
