Elio Di Rupo

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Elio Di Rupo (born July 18, 1951) is the leader of one of the two Belgian socialist parties, the French-speaking Parti Socialiste (PS), and one of Belgium's most powerful politicians. As many politicians in Belgium, he is a freemason.

Elio Di Rupo is a flamboyant left-winger, and is widely considered to have played a major part in the resurgence of the PS, now the joint largest party in the Belgian parliament. He is widely known to always wear red bow ties.

In 1996, he was accused of having had sex with minors by a young gay, Olivier Trusgnach. The allegations nearly put an end to his political career, but a judicial investigation cleared his name. After always having denied his homosexuality, the affair did make Di Rupo become open about it.

He is a deputy (MP) for the Hainaut division of Wallonia. He once described François Mitterrand as being "a character from a novel".

His political career started in 1982. He became bourgmestre of Mons, a major city in Hainaut, in 2000.

In October 2005, he became Minister-President of Wallonia after Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe resigned amid a corruption scandal, involving several members of Di Rupo's party. Di Rupo continued as party leader though, and has to deal with the PS's ICDI scandal that emerged in May 2006. Lately, he has been trying to clean out corruption in the Parti Socialiste(PS).

Preceded by Robert Collignon	Minister-President of Wallonia 1999–2000	Succeeded by Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe
Preceded by Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe	Minister-President of Wallonia 2005 – present	Incumbent