Johan Sauwens


Johan Sauwens is a Belgian politician from the province of Limburg.

Biography

Sauwens studied law at the Catholic University of Leuven and was from 1975 to 1993 attorney. Politically, he was a member of the People's Union.
Between October 1985 and May 1995, he was a representative. Ex officio, he was also a member of the Flemish Council during that period. At the first direct elections to the Flemish Parliament on May 21, 1995 he was elected in the constituency of Hasselt-Tongeren-Maaseik. He was re-elected in the June 1999 Flemish elections, but became Flemish minister shortly after on July 13, 1999.
In May 2001, he was forced to resign as minister after it became known that he attended the anniversary celebration of the Sint-Maartensfonds, an organization of Flemish Eastern Front Fighters, where he was a member for over twenty years. He was succeeded as minister by. This affair accelerated the collapse of the People's Union. After his resignation as Flemish minister, he was again serving in the Flemish Parliament. After the dissolution of the People's Union in the autumn of 2001, he moved over to the Christian democratic CD&V. In the Flemish elections of June 13, 2004 and June 7, 2009, he was again elected to the Flemish Parliament in the constituency of Limburg. On November 23, 2005 he and were honored for their twenty years of parliamentary service during a plenary session in the Flemish Parliament.
On January 14, 2011, the politician called for a far-reaching autonomy for Flanders. He suggested that the N-VA and the CD&V rightly did not accept a half-hearted compromise on the difficult government formation after the federal elections of 13 June 2010.
In 2014, he ran for office in the Flemish elections for Limburg, but was not elected. Since June 30, 2014, he can call himself honorary Flemish representative. That title was awarded by the Bureau of the Flemish Parliament.
At the end of 2014 he was nominated by the CD&V as a member of the board of the Flemish public transport company De Lijn. In 2015 he co-founded technology firm Techno Link.

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