Jean-Luc Dehaene

Make-up of the Dehaene I government by party

In 1992, after both Guy Verhofstadt and Melchior Wathelet had failed, Dehaene managed to form a governing coalition of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. This became one of Belgium's most important governments, because it successfully transformed Belgium into a federal state in 1993.[6][7] In March 1993, Dehaene offered the King the resignation of his government, because of diverging views on how to handle the public finances. However, within a week the differences were put aside.

After the death of King Baudouin on 31 July 1993, Dehaene's government exercised the royal function until Prince Albert was sworn in as King Albert II nine days later.[6]

In 1994, Dehaene ordered the unilateral withdrawal of Belgian troops from Rwanda following the massacre of a number of Belgian peacekeepers, thus lifting the last barrier to the genocide of Tutsis.[8] During questions from the Belgian parliamentary commission into this decision he repeatedly acknowledged no regrets about the decision. He was the leading candidate to replace Jacques Delors as President of the European Commission, but British Prime Minister John Major vetoed the appointment.[3] The Luxembourg Prime Minister Jacques Santer was appointed as a compromise candidate instead.

Jean-Luc Dehaene giving a speech in 2005

Dehaene's second government was also composed of Christian Democrats and Social Democrats. Despite the fact that the government was marked by a number of political crises and scandals, most notably the Dutroux affair, it managed to serve the entire legislature.[2] During this period, for his work toward a unified Europe, Dehaene received the Vision for Europe Award in 1996.[9] Dehaene led Belgium into the Euro,[10] and in preparation for joining the Eurozone, the Dehaene government was forced to make some sharp and unpopular economic reforms.[11] Some weeks before the 1999 elections the dioxin affair erupted, and both governing parties lost much of their support. He was replaced by a new government, led by Flemish liberal Guy Verhofstadt.[6]

Between 2000 and 2007, he sat as Burgemeester (mayor) of Vilvoorde.[11] At the request of his party, the CD&V, he was once again put up as a candidate during the 2003 elections, but this was clearly not with the intention of becoming Prime Minister as he was placed as the last person on the party list (Lijstduwer). In June 2004 and again in June 2009, Jean-Luc Dehaene was elected to the European Parliament for the CD&V within the center-right European People's Party (EPP) group.[11] In 2003, he was awarded the Vlerick Award.[12]

Between 2006 and 2007, Dehaene served as member of the Amato Group, a group of high-level European politicians unofficially working on rewriting the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe into what became known as the Treaty of Lisbon following its rejection by French and Dutch voters. After the Belgian elections of 2007, Dehaene was appointed as mediator in the process to form a new government.[3][13] He was also called in to assist in the negotiations around the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde partition.[2]

Jean-Luc Dehaene (left) with Wilfried Martens (center) at a European People's Party (EPP) meeting, 2005

Dehaene also served as the chief enforcer of the football association, UEFA's, Financial Fair Play (FFP).[14] In 2011, he was involved in an investigation of Manchester City F.C. over sponsorship irregularities.[14]

Dehaene, who had previously been director of InBev,[11] became chairman of Dexia Bank, a Belgian-French bank, in October 2008.[3] With the bank in difficulty owing to the financial crisis, he was asked to lead the company through the difficult period which he described as "mission impossible".[2] Owing to his extensive political background, it was thought that he could cope with the negative public perception Dexia had acquired through the financial crisis. His political connections helped Dexia's bad bank to secure funding guarantees of up to €90 billion, provided primarily by the Belgian government. In 2012, Dexia Belgium became Belfius.