Jean-Marie Dedecker

Who is Jean-Marie Dedecker?

Jean-Marie Louis Dedecker is a Belgian Flemish politician.

In 1999 and 2003, Dedecker was directly elected to the Belgian Senate. In 2004 Dedecker ran for a seat in the Flemish Parliament, after taking his seat in the Flemish Parliament, Dedecker was elected by his colleagues as a community senator as well. He was a member of the Flemish Liberals and Democrats, before being expelled, and eventually sided with the N-VA party for a brief time in November–December 2006. In January 2007, Dedecker presented his own political party— Lijst Dedecker—that participated in the 2007 general election. Against all expectations, Lijst Dedecker got 5 elected in Parliament, and 1 in Senate.

Dedecker became well-known first for his long career as a judo coach, with his judokas winning a for Belgium unprecedented number of medals, and then for his politics. In 2004, as a pure outsider, he won 38% of the votes for the VLD party leadership against the party establishment. He was expelled from the VLD though in October 2006.

Within the VLD he was one of the members that favours breaking the cordon sanitaire around the Vlaams Belang.