Rita Bellens was born in Antwerp, Belgium on September 29, 1962. Bellens was raised in Wilrijk during the early years despite being born in Antwerp. She and her family relocated to Lommel in 1978, where she completed her high school education and enrolled in college. Bellens spent twenty years working for herself as an independent travel agent in Duffel in 1989. She started working for a Mechelen service voucher company in 2011. She participated actively in pastoral service, multiple choirs, and the Chiro.

Rita Bellens was the Chairman of the Small Businesses Association Duffel-West and the United Shopkeepers Duffel-Centrum. Significant positions in Bellens’ political career include Alderman for the Mayor and Aldermen from 2015 to 2018 and Chairman of the Municipal Council at the beginning of 2019.

What is the Political Party of Rita Bellens?

The political party of Rita Bellens was the New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA). The N-Va was her exclusive political party. The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) was established in 2001. It has the most representatives in the Chamber, the Senate, and the Flemish parliament. Political scientists and media outlets often describe the N-VA as moderate, conservative-liberal, and economically liberal. The party is between the centre-right and the right sides of the political spectrum, with Flemish problems at the centre of its policy ideas and messaging. The N-VA has been described as being more critical of the EU and rather eurosceptic in recent years than in its early views of a European Union. The N-VA party news helps to spread knowledge about their beliefs.

What is the Official Title of Rita Bellens?

The official title of Rita Bellens is MP or Member of the Parliament. MP is commonly known as the Chamber of Representatives, in which Rita Bellens was a member from 2014 to 2019. One of the two houses in Belgium’s bicameral Federal Parliament is the Chamber of Representatives, and the other chamber is the Senate. It is referred to as the Federal Parliament’s “lower house.”

Other titles of Rita Bellens are listed below.

• Municipal Councillor Duffel (2007-2022): Rita Bellens was a municipal councillor from 2007 to 2012. She tendered her resignation as a city councillor in June 2022.
• OCMW Councilor Duffel (2007-2012): Bellens was elected as an OCMW councillor in 2007.
• Alderman of Duffel (2015-2018): Bellens was an Alderman of the Mayor and Aldermen. An alderman is an official member of a municipal assembly or council in several nations that follow English law. A member of a borough or county council who has an important role and a member chosen by fellow elected members instead of a public vote or a member chosen by voters.

How Long Was Rita Bellens in the Politics?

Rita Bellens served in politics for fifteen years, from 2007 to 2022. Bellens is a Belgian politician and a member of the New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA). The New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) is Belgium’s Flemish nationalist and conservative political party. The N-VA was founded as a centre-right party to advance Flemish autonomy and redefine Belgium as a confederal country. It was gradually granting more powers to Belgian communities separately, with the hope that it set the stage for future Flemish independence. Rita Bellens had political rivalries with Christiane Vienne, Alain Destexhe, Bert Anciaux, Benoît Lutgen, and Bert Wollants.

Rita Bellens was elected to the Municipal Council for the 2007–2012 Legislative term after placing sixth on the cartel list of CD&V/N–VA in her hometown of Duffel in the 2006 Municipal elections. She was a member of the OCMW Council from 2007 to 2012. She received 8,648 preference votes in the 2010 parliamentary elections but was not elected. The local Duffel branch in N-VA entered administrative cooperation with “sp.a-Groen” following the 2012 municipal elections.

Rita Bellen was selected in the Federal elections held on May 25, 2014, to serve as a candidate in the Chamber of Representatives for the electoral district of Antwerp. She did not win the re-election in the 2019 federal elections. Her service as a City Councilor ended in June 2022.

What are the Important News about Rita Bellens?

The important news about Rita Bellens is listed below.

• “A delegation from the Friendship Group between Taiwan and Belgium was in Taiwan” is news about Rita Bellens on September 04, 2016. Rita Bellens was one of the delegates who travelled to Taiwan to broaden her knowledge of ROC policies. Delegates learned more about the country’s innovative industries, cross-strait interactions, infrastructure, sustainable development, social welfare policies, and political and economic development. The visit expects an enhancement in bilateral legislative exchanges.
• “Rita Bellens (N-VA) was appointed as the Chairman of the Municipal Council and OCMW” is the news broadcast on January 03, 2019. Rita Bellens from North Virginia led the Duffelse OCMW and municipal council during the legislative session. Bellens served as an alderman in the previous legislature and has been involved in Duffel politics for a decade. She has served as a congressional lawmaker since 2014.
• “Rita Bellens, a member of parliament, criticises the decision made by the departing Michel government” is the news broadcast on April 12, 2019. A set up of a Federal Human Rights Institute just before elections. Calling it a wasteful and expensive electoral present that just adds to Belgium’s existing congestion.
• “Rita Bellens (N-VA) resigns from politics” is the news broadcast on June 17, 2022. The chairman of the municipal council and a former Duffel alderman gave up her political career. Kristoff Van Genechten, a party comrade, was her successor on the town council.

What are the Political Ideas of Rita Bellens?

The political ideas of Rita Bellens believe that by creating a superfluous and redundant organisation, such as Unia, the new institute makes things more confusing for people attempting to file complaints. She criticised the legislation as a hurried and expensive electoral gift, saying that the government must have taken the chance to combine current institutions rather than establish new ones.

Rita Bellens, a member of parliament, criticises the decision made by the departing Michel government to create a new Federal Human Rights Institute just before the elections. Considering it a needless and expensive electoral present that merely clogs Belgium’s existing congested institutions. She was dissatisfied with the Michel administration’s choice to create a new Federal Human Rights Institute, a project with a startling 2020 price tag of around 594,554 euros.

Who are Rita Bellens’ Political Rivals?

Rita Bellens’ political rivals are listed below.

• Christiane Vienne: Christiane Vienne is a politician from Belgium who belongs to the Parti Socialiste. Vienne was selected in 2007 to serve in the Belgian Senate.
• Alain Destexhe: Belgian politician Alain Destexhe, born on June 19, 1958, belonged to the liberal Mouvement Réformateur (MR). Destexhe served as a senator from 1995 to 2011 and remained a member of the Brussels Regional Parliament until 2019.
• Bert Anciaux: Belgian politician Bert Jozef Herman Vic Anciaux, born September 11, 1959, is the leader of the Vooruit faction in the Senate. Anciaux was one of the founding members of Spirit, later known as the Flemish Progressives, then the Social Liberal Party, or SLP.
• Benoît Lutgen: Benoît Lutgen is a politician from Belgium who led the Humanist Democrat Centre (Centre démocrate humaniste) from 2011 to 2019. Lutgen was born on March 10, 1970.
• Bert Wollants: Belgian politician Bert Wollants was born on August 30, 1979, in Lier and is a member of the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA). Wollants is replacing Kris Van Dijck as a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives from 2010 onwards.

1. Christiane Vienne

Christiane Vienne is a Senator from Belgium who belongs to the Parti Socialiste. She was elected to the Belgian Senate in 2007. The politician served from 2007 to 2014. Vienne, a professional accountant, earned a political, economic, and social sciences degree from University College London in 1992. She was federal secretary of the Mouvement Ouvrier Chrétien department and employed at UCL, Forem. Vienne ran as an Ecolo candidate in the municipal elections in Mouscron, was elected as a municipal councillor, and then started participating in politics for the PS.

Vienne was a politician from Belgium who held positions in the House of Representatives, Senate, and Ministry. She was appointed to the Walloon Parliament and the French Community in 2014, where she worked as the PS faction’s secretary and chairwoman. She served as a Mouscron municipal councillor and a co-opted senator. Vienne left the Senate in 2004 to take a position in the Walloon government as Minister of Health, Social Action, and Equal Opportunities in the Walloon Government.

Vienne was elected to the Walloon Parliament and the French Community Parliament in the 2014 elections. She chairs and serves as secretary of the PS faction in the second parliament. Her party nominated her as a state senator to the Senate in 2014. Christiane Vienne has withdrawn herself from the 2019 parliamentary elections. She was one of the political rivals of Rita Bellens in the 2014 election.

2. Alain Destexhe

Alain Destexhe is a politician from Belgium with a long history in politics, from 1995 to 2019. Destexhe is a longtime political activist who has contributed to multiple areas of the Belgian government throughout a multi-decade career. He first rose to prominence in Belgium as a member of the liberal Reformist Movement (Mouvement Réformateur, MR). Destexhe gained recognition in 2019 when he broke away from MR and started a new political party named “Liste Destexhe.” The move was motivated by a desire for a different kind of politics and a dissatisfaction with MR’s viewpoints.

Destexhe is a politician from Belgium who was first elected to the Senate in 1995 and re-elected in 1999. He was a member of the AWEPA Governing Council and President of Parliamentarians for Global Action. Destexhe was re-elected in 2014 after receiving the Prize for Liberty in 2006. He was a member of other committees and represented Belgium in the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe since 2014. Destexhe is a board member of The Parliamentary Network on the World Bank & International Monetary Fund and has served as the Assembly’s rapporteur on Azerbaijan since 2017. It created a controversy in March 2017 when Destexhe travelled to Damascus with Pedro Agramunt and Jordi Xuclà during the Syrian civil war. The Alain Destexhe News helps people learn more about the politician. He was one of Rita Bellens’ political rivals in the 2014 election.

3. Bert Anciaux

Bert Anciaux is a popular political figure in Belgium with a great deal of experience from 1987 to 2012. Anciaux has spent decades changing policies and advocacy for many causes. He is most well-known for being associated with the Socialist Party – Differently (SP.A), a social-democratic political party in Belgium, for which he has served in important posts. Anciaux’s political career has led to his support of social justice, education reform, and cultural issues, consistent with the party’s values.

Bert Anciaux was a councilman in Brussels before becoming chairman of the Volksunion. Bert served as a councilman in the City of Brussels in 1987 before joining the Flemish Brabant regional council in 1991. He was appointed chairman of the Volksunie in 1992 and served until 1998. He was a member of the Belgian Senate from 1995 to 1999.

Anciaux started the organisation known as iD21 in the wake of the 1998 White Marches to combat ineptitude and corruption. The politician was elected to the European Parliament in 1999. He became leader of the Spirit and New-Flemish Alliance following the demise of the Volksunie in 2001. The appointment as Federal Transport Minister followed his 2002 resignation as Minister of Culture. He joined the Flemish social-democratic party Vooruit in 2008 after quitting his previous party. The important details on Bert Anciaux News help a lot to know more about the politician. He was one of the political rivals of Rita Bellens in the 2014 election.

4. Benoît Lutgen

Benoît Lutgen is an experienced politician who has served the public for many years in Belgium, from 2001 to the present. Lutgen acquired priceless experience and knowledge throughout the years, which has shaped his reputation as an important figure in politics. He is closely connected to Belgium’s centrist political party, the Humanist Democratic Centre (Centre Démocrate Humaniste, cdH), where he played prominent roles and had a significant impact. Lutgen’s political program, which reflects the ideals of his party, often includes the concepts of social cohesion, environmental sustainability, and ethical government.

Lutgen held previous positions, including National Campaign Director for the party in 2004 and Secretary-General of the Centre Démocrate Humaniste from 2001 to 2002. He served as Wallonia’s Minister of Public Works, Agriculture, Rural Affairs, Nature, Forests, and Heritage between 2004 and 2009 under Presidents Elio Di Rupo and Rudy Demotte.

Lutgen has been a member of the Tourism Task Force and the Committee on Transport and Tourism of the European Parliament since 2019. He was a substitute member of the Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development, where Benoît Lutgen was the rapporteur for the European Commission’s 2023 proposal to modify the Industrial Emissions Directive. The politician was a member of the European Parliament’s Intergroup on Disability, Animal Welfare, and Conservation. He was one of the political rivals of Rita Bellens in the 2014 election.

5. Bert Wollants

One of Belgium’s most experienced politicians, Bert Wollants, gained much political experience from 2010 to 2022. He was born on August 30, 1979. Wollants is an established politician in Belgium, having devoted a career to serving the public interest and becoming skilled at negotiating the political labyrinth. He is strongly associated with the New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA), a Flemish nationalist and conservative political party in Belgium, where Bert Wollants has held several prominent positions. Issues relevant to Flemish objectives, such as regional autonomy, economic success, and cultural preservation, frequently form the core of Wollants’ political agenda. He was one of the political rivals of Rita Bellens in the 2014 election.