Marc Botenga (born 29 December 1980) is a Belgian politician of the

Workers' Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxism, Marxist and Socialism, socialist political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. It is one of the few ...

''(PVDA-PTB)''. In 2019, he was elected as member of the

Ninth European Parliament The ninth European Parliament was elected in the 2019 elections and is to last until the 2024 elections. Major events *23–26 May 2019 ** Elections to the 9th European Parliament. ***EPP (182 seats), S&D (154), RE (108), Greens/EFA (74), ...

as part of The Left in the European Parliament party group. Botenga is the first MEP to be chosen for the PVDA-PTB.

Biography

Botenga studied law at the Université libre de Bruxelles. In 1998 he engaged in the movement advocating for the step-down of then Belgian Minister of the Interior

Louis Tobback Louis Marie Joseph Tobback (born 3 May 1938) is a Belgian politician. Tobback is a Flemish social democrat and member of the political party SP.A. He was the mayor of Leuven (1995–2018) He graduated in Romance philology at the Vrije Univers ...

, following the killing of asylum seeker

Semira Adamu Semira Adamu (15 April 1978 – 22 September 1998) was a 20-year-old Nigerian asylum seeker who was suffocated to death by two Belgian police officers on a aeroplane in Brussels, Belgium, during her forced deportation on September 22, 1998. Th ...

by police officers. Later, he participated in workers' mobilization against the close-down of the ''Forges de Clabecq'' iron works. In the wake of the

European debt crisis The European debt crisis, often also referred to as the eurozone crisis or the European sovereign debt crisis, is a multi-year debt crisis that took place in the European Union (EU) from 2009 until the mid to late 2010s. Several eurozone membe ...

beginning in 2010, Botenga began to become more involved in European politics, participating in actions of political support for

Greece Greece,, or , romanized: ', officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the southern tip of the Balkans, and is located at the crossroads of Europe, Asia, and Africa. Greece shares land borders with ...

. In 2016, he became the political advisor of the European GUE/NGL parliamentary group. He is a member of the Committee on Industry, Research and Energy and the delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

Member of the European Parliament

Botenga is a

Member of the European Parliament A Member of the European Parliament (MEP) is a person who has been elected to serve as a popular representative in the European Parliament. When the European Parliament (then known as the Common Assembly of the ECSC) first met in 1952, its ...

since the

2019 elections The following elections were scheduled to occur in 2019. The International Foundation for Electoral Systems has a calendar of upcoming elections around the world, and the National Democratic Institute also maintains a calendar of elections in coun ...

with The Left group. He is member on the

Committee on Industry, Research and Energy The Committee on Industry, Research and Energy (ITRE) is a committee of the European Parliament. Its areas of responsibility relate to industry, especially technology-intensive manufacturing, information technology, and telecommunications. It also ...

and the Delegation to the ACP-EU Joint Parliamentary Assembly.

References

MEPs for Belgium 2019–2024 Workers' Party of Belgium MEPs 1980 births Living people Workers' Party of Belgium politicians {{Belgium-MEP-stub

Biography

Member of the European Parliament

See also

References