Sonja Claes
Sonja Claes is a Belgian politician for Christen-Democratisch en Vlaams (CD&V), born in Hasselt on the 23rd of October 1958.
Political career
Sonja Claes started her political career in the 1988 communal elections in Heusden-Zolder as counsellor. With the 1991 parliamentary elections she started her national career. Until the end of 1994 she was active as an educational assistant at CVP Limburg. She was also the leader of CVP (Christelijke Volkspartij, forrunner of CD&V) Heusden-Zolder. In 1995 she became mayor of Heusden-Zolder until 2012, with a break between 2000 and 2007 when she became deputy for the province of Limburg. In 2007 Claes was elected as member of the Flemish parliament. In 2014 she was re-elected. After the elections she was also appointed as a state senator in the renewed Sen-ate.
Education
Claes studied Social Assistant at the Hoger Instituut der Kempen (HIK) in Geel .
