Petra De Sutter

In the 2014 European elections, De Sutter was second on the list for the Flemish Green party. However, while the party gained votes, it missed its hold on an additional second seat. She was subsequently co-opted by her party for a seat in the Belgian Senate.[4] As a trans woman,[1] she became the first openly transgender Belgian to be on a party election list.[6]

In addition to her role in the Senate, De Sutter served as member of the Belgian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe from 2014 until 2019.[7] As member of the Socialists, Democrats and Greens Group, she was a member of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons; the Committee on Rules of Procedure, Immunities and Institutional Affairs; the Sub-Committee on Integration; the Sub-Committee on Public Health and Sustainable Development; and the Sub-Committee on Ethics. She served as the Assembly's rapporteur on children's rights in relation to surrogacy arrangements (2016);[8] on the use of new genetic technologies in human beings (2017);[9] and on the conditions of reception of refugees and migrants (2018).[10]

Since her political debut, De Sutter has tackled important issues: a regulation for surrogacy at a Belgian and European level, independent clinical research in the pharmaceutical industry, the risks of TTIP for consumer's protection of food and chemicals, and standing up for rights for LGBT people.[11]

On 15 September 2018 it was announced De Sutter was seeking nomination as one of the European Greens two lead candidates for the 2019 European Parliament elections, which eventually fell down to the Dutch Bas Eickhout and the German Ska Keller.[12] After joining the Parliament, she chaired the Committee on the Internal Market and Consumer Protection; she was the first Green politician in this position.[13] In 2020, she also joined the Special Committee on Beating Cancer.[14]

In addition to her committee assignments, De Sutter was part of the Parliament's delegation for relations with the countries of South Asia (Bangladesh, Bhutan, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka). She was also a member of the European Parliament Intergroup on LGBT Rights[15] and co-chaired the MEPs Against Cancer group.[16]

In December 2020, De Sutter received the Justice & Gender Equality award at The Parliament Magazine's annual MEP Awards, in recognition of her work as an MEP on sexual and reproductive rights.[17]

On 1 October 2020, De Sutter was sworn in as one of seven deputy prime ministers in the government of Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, becoming Europe's first transgender deputy prime minister, and the most senior trans politician in Europe.[18]

In October 2023, De Sutter criticised UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak's speech at the Conservative party conference where he argued that his audience should not be “bullied into believing that people can be any sex they want to be” and that “a man is a man and a woman is a woman”. She described Sunak's words as “hurtful and very disappointing” as well as “fuelling transphobia”.[19]