Hugo Coveliers
Hugo F.V. Coveliers (born 21 February 1947) is a retired Belgian politician and lawyer. He was a member of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives between 1985 and 1995 and from 1993 to 2003. Since 2003 he has been a member of the Belgian Senate. He was a parliamentary chairman for the VLD in both chambers, from 1999 to 2003. Biography. Coveliers was born in Schelle, Flemish Community, Belgium, on 21 February 1947. As a student he came into contact with the Flemish Movement. Coveliers became a member of the Young Flemish Student Community and at the  University of Ghent he was a member of the "Vlaams-Nationale Studentenunie" for two years. From his period in the humanities he was involved in the youth section of the People's Union ("Volksunie"), a Flemish nationalist party, of which he was the chairman from 1974 to 1976. He was also a municipal councilor of Antwerp from 1974 to 1976. From 1976 to 1979, he was chairman of the Volksunie section of the Antwerp district. He later changed to the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD) in 1992 together with some other frustrated party members. Within the VLD, he was part  of the conservative wing, and he was open to the idea of working with the Vlaams Belang ("Flemish Interest") and its precursor Vlaams Blok ("Flemish Bloc"), something the VLD's leadership did not support. In 2004 Coveliers was co-founder of the Antwerp section of the conservative-libertarian organization Nova Civitas and became inspired and influenced by Dutch politician Pim Fortuyn. At that time he also feuded openly with VLD party chairman Karel De Gucht. This resulted in Coveliers being ejected from the party on 8 February 2005, and starting his own political party VLOTT in the fall of 2005  based on Fortuyn's ideas. This party is willing to work together with the Vlaams Belang (VB) and formed a cartel with it for the Antwerp city elections in October 2006. After the dismissal of Jean-Marie Dedecker from the VLD, Coveliers, Dedecker and Boudewijn Bouckaert (and other Nova Civitas members) started negotiations to form a new right-wing liberal party. Coveliers and members of VLOTT stood on the VB list for the 2007 general election. Coveliers has since became a member of VB. Coveliers withdrew from active politics early 2012.