Gilles Verstraeten | |
|---|---|
| Member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region | |
| Assumed office 2019 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 6 November 1989 Kortrijk, Belgium |
| Political party | New Flemish Alliance |
Gilles Verstraeten (born 6 November 1989) is a Belgian lawyer, political commentator and politician. Since 2019, he has served as a member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region for the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party.
Verstraeten studied law at KU Leuven and Vrije Universiteit Brussel before graduating in 2013. He worked in the European Parliament as a personal assistant to British Conservative Party MEP Daniel Hannan and was a director for the Open Europe think tank and the Students for Liberty group. [1] He is also chairman of the N-VA section of the municipality of Anderlecht and vice-chairman of the Brussels section of the Jong N-VA. Politically, Verstraeten has described himself as a conservative and a classical liberal. He stated that he chose to become active in the N-VA as he felt the other main Flemish conservative liberal party the Open VLD had moved too far to the left. [2]
In 2019, he was third on the N-VA list for the Brussels-Capital Region and was elected to the Brussels Parliament where he focuses on matters related to social affairs, integration, education, LGBT issues and the economy. He is also a municipal councilor in Anderlecht. [3] [4]
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