http://www.marie-arena.be/frameset.cfm?sect=intro

For example, click on l'equipe, then click on the text and you get to her ministerial office staff.

(Marie Arena is a socialist star in Belgium. At age 36, she has already been a minister in the Walloon regional government for 3 years, and was elected Sunday as one of the wave of women in the new Belgian parliament.)

[ 21 May 2003: Message edited by: Wilfred Day ]

I can't find it.

She is the 13th to the right of the minister herself.

In 1999, the socialists elected 2 women out of 33 deputies. This time they elected 19 out of 48.

The liberals were almost as good this time, electing 19 women out of 49.

http://lesoir.be/articles/a_03F35C.asp

She is one of the five women among the 15 members of the new liberal - socialist coalition government. Never has a Belgian cabinet been so feminine, nor so young (average age 44 years). Of the 15 ministers, 7 are new, and 4 of the 7 are women.

"I almost came in jeans," Marie Arena (age 36) confides. "I didn't think I would be called to the federal level this time." She is Minister for the Public Service, for Social Integration and for Urban Affairs. "I want to fight against exclusion, against the impoverishment of the cities, and dedicate myself to the blooming of intercultural society" says the new socialist minister.

The youngest of the new cabinet, at 28, is socialist Freya Van den Bossche. A lawyer first elected at age 24, now she is Minister of the Environment, of Consumer Protection and of Sustainable Development.

Also new are 37-year old liberal Sabine Laruelle and 44-year old liberal Fientje Moerman. They join Belgium's Vice-Premier and Minister of Justice, the veteran socialist Laurette Onkelinx.

Then, of the six new junior ministers, two are socialist women. The most interesting is Anissa Temsamani, 36, the first child of immigrants to be a minister. Of Moroccan origin. she is a single mother of 3 daughters. The other, Isabelle Simonis, is also 36.