Georges Gilkinet (born 25 January 1971) is a Belgian

green Green is the color between cyan and yellow on the visible spectrum. It is evoked by light which has a dominant wavelength of roughly 495570 Nanometre, nm. In subtractive color systems, used in painting and color printing, it is created by ...

politician of

Ecolo Ecolo, officially Écologistes Confédérés pour l'organisation de luttes originales'', (English: Confederate Ecologists for the Organisation of Original Struggles)'' is a French-speaking political party in Belgium based on green politics. The ...

, and as of 1 October 2020, Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and the National Railway Company in the

cabinet Cabinet or The Cabinet may refer to: Furniture * Cabinetry, a box-shaped piece of furniture with doors and/or drawers * Display cabinet, a piece of furniture with one or more transparent glass sheets or transparent polycarbonate sheets * Filing ...

of Alexander De Croo.

Biography

George Gilkinet was born on 25 January 1971 in

Assesse Assesse () is a municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Namur, Belgium. On 1 January 2006, Assesse had a total population of 6,252. The total area is 78.16 km² which gives a population density of 80 inhabitants per km². The ...

in the

Namur Province Namur (; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a province of Wallonia, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders (clockwise from the West) on the Walloon provinces of Hainaut, Walloon Brabant, Liège and Luxembourg in Belgium, and the French depar ...

of Belgium. He graduated from ''

Institut des hautes études des communications sociales The IHECS or officially, the Institut des hautes études des communications sociales – École de journalisme de Bruxelles (French for: Institute of Higher Studies in Social Communication – Brussels School of Journalism) is a French-speaking ...

'' in Brussels, and was a sports journalist for Canal C for 15 years. In 2007, Gilkinet was first elected to the Chamber of Representatives for

. He specialized in finances, and between 2012 and 2014 was the Chairman of the Finance Commission. In 2011, the criminal investigation in the Belgian part of the

Kazakhgate Kаzаkhgаtе refers to the scandal surrounding James Giffen, an American businessman and former advisor of Kazakhstan president Nursultan Nazarbayev. Charges US prosecutors accused Giffen of bribery paid to Nazarbayev and Nurlan Balgimbayev, ...

affair was closed after the suspects agreed to pay a fine of €522,500 each. In 2017, a parliamentary enquiry which included Gilkinet was launched to investigate whether lobbying and manipulation had taken place. During the investigation, one of the suspects in the case took legal action against Gilkinet, and he was the victim of hacking. The enquiry concluded that the lobbying efforts had no significant effect on the outcome of the case. The opposition and Gilkinet disagreed with the conclusion. According to Gilkinet, the enquiry was a first class burial. He became Chairman of Ecolo in 2018. On 1 October 2020, Gilkinet became Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Mobility and the National Railway Company in the

Alexander De Croo Alexander De Croo (born 3 November 1975) is a Belgian politician and businessman who has served as the prime minister of Belgium since October 2020. De Croo was born in Vilvoorde, Flemish Brabant, and studied business engineering at the Vrije ...

Honours

* Knight in the Order of Leopold (2014)

References

External links

*
Chamber of Representatives page
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilkinet, Georges 1971 births Living people People from Namur (province) Ecolo politicians Government ministers of Belgium Members of the Chamber of Representatives (Belgium) Order of Leopold (Belgium)