Lhe MR has decided to propose to the King the appointment as Minister of Foreign Affairs of the diplomat Bernard Quintin to replace Hadja Lahbib, who will become European Commissioner on Sunday, announced the liberal party on Saturday in a press release.
Hadja Lahbib becoming European Commissioner in charge of Equality and Crisis Preparedness and Management, she was to be replaced within the federal government. The MR finally chose Bernard Quintin.
Negotiations to form a federal government are continuing, and the parties around the table, including the MR, hope to “succeed soon”. Mr. Quintin is therefore not expected to stay in place for long, but “in view of the worrying international context, in particular the intensification of the war in Ukraine”, the Liberal party considered that the Foreign Affairs portfolio should return to a single person and not be taken over by a minister already in office.
“The international situation did not allow, even for a few weeks, to do without a full-time Minister of Foreign Affairs. Bernard Quintin is directly operational and knows the files perfectly. I am convinced that he is the right person, at the right time, in the right place,” assured the president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, in a press release.
“This proposal and the confidence it shows honors me and I will be fully mobilized from the first minute to continue the work led by Ms. Lahbib. The next few weeks will be intense,” commented Bernard Quintin in the same press release.
Mr. Quintin was “stationed in Warsaw, London, Kinshasa and at the Permanent Representation to the European Union”, recalls the MR. He was also consul general in Rio de Janeiro, Belgian ambassador to Burundi and worked in the cabinets of Olivier Chastel (2011-2012) and Philippe Goffin, then Minister of Foreign Affairs (2019-2020). Then, he was Deputy Director General Africa of the European Diplomatic Service (EEAS) for three years, after which he returned to Belgium to manage the Belgian Presidency of the Council of the European Union as Director General of European Affairs ad interim.
This connoisseur of Africa was also the candidate supported by Belgium for the post of EU special representative in the Great Lakes region. Although he came first in the selection procedure, the position had escaped him during the summer following pressure from Rwanda, opposed to his appointment, a diplomatic source explained.
