Zakia Khattabi (

Arabic Arabic (, ' ; , ' or ) is a Semitic languages, Semitic language spoken primarily across the Arab world.Semitic languages: an international handbook / edited by Stefan Weninger; in collaboration with Geoffrey Khan, Michael P. Streck, Janet C ...

: ; born 15 January 1976) is a Belgian-Moroccan politician who was the co-president of the

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 ...

party. Khattabi was born in

Saint-Josse-ten-Noode Saint-Josse-ten-Noode () or Sint-Joost-ten-Node (), often simply called Saint-Josse or Sint-Joost, is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located in the north-eastern part of the region, it is bordered by the Ci ...

in Brussels to Moroccan parents. She studied at Université libre de Bruxelles. She believes in political ecology and is a

feminist Feminism is a range of socio-political movements and ideologies that aim to define and establish the political, economic, personal, and social equality of the sexes. Feminism incorporates the position that society prioritizes the male po ...

activist which led to her joining the Ecolo party. , she serves as federal Minister of Climate, Environment, Sustainable Development and Green Deal in the

De Croo Government The De Croo Government is the incumbent Federal Government of Belgium, led by Prime Minister Alexander De Croo since 1 October 2020. History The creation of the De Croo Government occurred on 1 October 2020, 494 days after the 2019 Belgian fed ...

led by Prime Minister

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 Vrij ...

Political career and views

She became a member of the

Brussels Parliament The Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (All text and all but one graphic show the English name as Brussels-Capital Region.) ( French: ''Parlement de la Région de Bruxelles-Capitale'', Dutch: ''Parlement van het Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gew ...

in 2009 as the local councillor for

Ixelles ( French, ) or (Dutch, ), is one of the 19 municipalities of the Brussels-Capital Region, Belgium. Located to the south-east of Brussels' city centre, it is geographically bisected by the City of Brussels. It is also bordered by the muni ...

, and then also sat in the

Wallonia-Brussels Federation In Belgium, the French Community (french: Communauté française; ) refers to one of the three constituent constitutional linguistic communities. Since 2011, the French Community has used the name Wallonia-Brussels Federation (french: Fédé ...

. She later became president of the Ecolo group at the

Belgian Senate The Senate ( nl, Senaat, ; french: Sénat, ; german: Senat) is one of the two chambers of the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Chamber of Representatives. It is considered to be the "upper house" of the Federal Parlia ...

. Khattabi was elected, along with Patrick Dupriez, as co-leader of Ecolo during a party conference in

Charleroi Charleroi ( , , ; wa, Tchålerwè ) is a city and a municipality of Wallonia, located in the province of Hainaut, Belgium. By 1 January 2008, the total population of Charleroi was 201,593.

in 2015. Dupriez was replaced in 2018 by

Jean-Marc Nollet Jean-Marc is a French masculine given name. It may refer to: * Jean-Marc Adjovi-Bocco (born 1963), Beninese former football player * Jean-Marc Ayrault (born 1950), French politician * Jean-Marc Barr (born 1960), French-American film actor and dir ...

. In a 2018 interview with ''

Le Soir ''Le Soir'' (, "The Evening") is a French-language Belgian daily newspaper. Founded in 1887 by Emile Rossel, it was intended as a politically independent source of news. It is one of the most popular Francophone newspapers in Belgium, competing ...

'', Khattabi called for a "new model" for Brussels without separate Flemish and Francophone communities. That same year following the killing of 14 women from macho violence in Belgium that year, Khattabi called for the recognition of

femicide Femicide or feminicide is a hate crime which is broadly defined as "the intentional killing of women or girls because they are female," but definitions of it vary depending on cultural context. In 1976, the feminist author Diana E. H. Russ ...

. Under Khattabi's co-presidency, Ecolo made large gains in Brussels in the local elections of 2018 to become the second largest party there. In the 2019 federal election Ecolo doubled its share of the vote, and gained its biggest number of seats yet, which Khattabi attributed to a rising "green wave" in Europe. In January 2020, Khattabi failed to gain sufficient support from Belgian senators to become one of the judges at the Belgian Constitutional Court. Her candidature received the votes of only 38 of 60 senators, whereas a

supermajority A supermajority, supra-majority, qualified majority, or special majority is a requirement for a proposal to gain a specified level of support which is greater than the threshold of more than one-half used for a simple majority. Supermajority ru ...

of two-thirds was required. The vote should have been held in November 2019 originally, but was postponed after a campaign by right-wing party N-VA and far-right

Vlaams Belang , ideology = , predecessor = Vlaams Blok , position = , europarl = Identity and Democracy , european = Identity and Democracy Party , youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren , colours = , ...

against Khattabi's candidature.

Honours

*: Order of Leopold (21 May 2014)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Khattabi, Zakia 1976 births Politicians from Brussels Ecolo politicians Living people 21st-century Belgian politicians 21st-century Belgian women politicians Belgian people of Moroccan descent Belgian feminists Government ministers of Belgium Women government ministers of Belgium