Barbara Pas
Barbara Pas (born 1 March 1981) is a Belgian politician and a member of the Chamber of Representatives for Vlaams Belang. Pas previously served as national chairwoman of the Vlaams Belang Jongeren.[1]
Barbara Pas | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Member of the Chamber of Representatives | |
| Assumed office 2007 | |
| Personal details | |
| Born | Barbara Pas 3 January 1981 Temse, Belgium |
| Political party | Vlaams Belang |
| Alma mater | Catholic University of Leuven |
Early life
Pas was born in Temse in 1981. She studied a degree in engineering at the Catholic University of Leuven during which she was a member of the Nationalistische Studentenvereniging.[2]
Political career
Pas served as the national chair of the Vlaams Belang Jongeren, the youth wing of the Vlaams Belang from October 2009 to March 2012. She was elected to the Chamber of Representatives in 2007. Since December 2012 she has been national vice-president of Vlaams Belang.[3] In April 2013, she succeeded Gerolf Annemans the VB's group leader in the Chamber of Representatives for the Flemish Interest. She continued this until May 2014, when her party did not have enough MPs to have another fraction. She was reappointed to the role again in 2019, after Vlaams Belang did get enough members for a parliamentary faction again.[4][5] In 2020, Pas expressed criticism of moves by the Black Lives Matter protests in Belgium to remove statues of Leopold II, King of the Belgians in public spaces. She argued that while she is a republican and that Leopold had oppressed the Flemish community, she also believed that statues of historical figure should remain, and stated that "It bothers me that an American incident is being imported here."[6] Pas has also negotiated with Bart De Wever to end the cordon sanitaire applied to the VB and believes it will be lifted by 2024 as both the VB and the N-VA will gain enough votes to work together.[7]