AFP
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NOS News•today, 03:00
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Belgian minister Sophie Wilmès will not return as foreign minister. She announced in April that she temporarily stops because she wanted to be with her husband who was diagnosed with an aggressive form of brain cancer. Now she has definitively resigned from her position and resigned.
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“My husband’s illness will be a difficult battle that I want to fight by his side and by the side of our children. My current duties in government do not allow me to do that,” Wilmès said in a press release.
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Belgian Prime Minister De Croo says in a reaction that he understands Wilmès’ choice. “Admiration for the person you are and the choice you make. We stand behind you in the battle you fight with Christopher,” he writes in a response. He goes on to say that he regrets seeing a strong foreign minister leave.
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Wilmès will remain a Member of Parliament. This morning her party MR, the Walloon liberals, announces who will succeed her.
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The 47-year-old Sophie Wilmès has been active in national politics since 2015. Previously, she was Minister of the Budget and the Civil Service and from October 2019 to September 2020 she was Prime Minister of the Federal Government. She was the first woman to hold that office in Belgium. She and her husband, Australian businessman Christopher Stone, have four children.
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