Wilfried Vandaele

Vandaele was elected as a member of the Flemish Parliament in 2009.^[1] In January 2013 he succeeded party leader Bart De Wever as a senator for the Flemish community. As a senator he was a member of the committees for home affairs and administrative affairs.^[2] Since 2015 he is an alternate member of the European Alliance Group at the European Committee of the Regions.^[3] From 13 July 2019 he was Speaker of the Flemish Parliament until his replacement by Liesbeth Homans on 2 October 2019. He subsequently became the leader of the N-VA parliamentary group, succeeding Matthias Diependaele who was appointed as a minister in the new Jambon government.^[4]

Vandaele has been a member of the city council of De Haan since 1 January 1989. He served as alderman (January 1, 2007 – December 31, 2012) and has been the mayor of the town since 1 January 2019.^[5] Upon becoming mayor, he resigned from his position as senator, as is legally required.^[6]