Nepo babies! European politicians who keep it in the family

8 months ago 6

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There are lots of ways to become a politician — but having a famous daddy (or, very occasionally, mommy) can certainly help.

In the European Parliament this month, Helmut Geuking, a German lawmaker from a fringe party in the European People’s Party group, quit as an MEP and was officially replaced by … his son Niels Geuking. The name of their small political movement is the Family Party. Of course it is.

The Geukings have done nothing wrong, with junior being next on the party’s list should someone higher up — in this case, his dad — quit.

This kind of behavior has worked for a surprisingly large number of politicians across Europe (and especially in Belgium).

Belgian researchers recently published a study into political dynasties in which they found that at least one in 10 MPs in Belgium has a parent who also held office. The proportion of political heirs in Belgium’s parliaments has been on the rise for the last 20 years — returning to 19th-century levels and not dipping below 12 percent.

It’s not just Belgium that’s home to political dynasties. Here are nine more political nepo babies (and there are plenty more we could have included).

CHARLES MICHEL

European Council President Charles Michel — who recently caused anger with his decision to run as a candidate in the European election and then again by changing his mind — has stayed firmly in the family business.

Son of Louis Michel, who was Belgium’s foreign minister, a European commissioner and a member of the European Parliament, Michel Jr struggled to escape comparison with his father at the beginning of his career (many older Belgians still call him le fils — the son). But he soon made a name for himself as the youngest Belgian prime minister before taking over as president of the European Council.

Michel has a younger brother, Mathieu, who currently serves as Brussels state secretary for buildings administration (he’s the one behind the reconstruction of the Palais de Justice).

KAJA KALLAS

Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, the first woman to hold that office, is the daughter of former prime minister, foreign minister and presidential candidate Siim Kallas. He also spent more than a decade in the European Commission, most recently as a vice president and transport commissioner, and currently holds a seat in the Riigikogu, the Estonian parliament.

Kaja Kallas, a lawyer and a former MEP, has seen her popularity rise across the Continent because of her hard line on Russia and China (she’s now on Russia’s wanted list “for the destruction and damage of monuments to Soviet soldiers”). Kallas was calling for sanctions on Russia long before it invaded Ukraine, and made sure Estonia was ready when Moscow turned off the gas taps. Her mother was deported to Siberia as a baby — a story Kallas has often referenced when speaking about Russia.

There’s more. Kallas’ great-grandfather Eduard Alver was also a big name in politics and represented — as a commander of the Estonian Defense League — one of the leading figures fighting for Estonia’s independence from the Soviet Union.

MARINE LE PEN

Like father, like daughter? Marine Le Pen followed in the far-right footsteps of her father Jean-Marie Le Pen, founder of the far-right National Front (now National Rally).

Owing to her attempts to break away from the party’s toxic past and court the center ground, Marine Le Pen is often described as a less radical version of her father.

There’s one more “former” Le Pen you should know. Marion Maréchal, Marine Le Pen’s niece, dropped the Le Pen part of her name in 2018 (and she’s married to Italian MEP Vincenzo Sofo, of the Brothers of Italy). She has recently announced that her party Reconquest will join the ECR in the European Parliament — which means that its only MEP will have to move seats.

JENS STOLTENBERG

NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg — who in October will celebrate 10 years in office — is another with politics in his blood as the son of prominent Norwegian diplomat Thorvald Stoltenberg and state secretary Karin Heiberg.

Heiberg’s sister Marianne was director of the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) field office in Jerusalem, and was married to former Foreign Minister Johan Jørgen Holst, who was involved in the peace process leading to the Oslo Accords aimed at propelling the Middle East peace process forward.

Before taking on his role at NATO, Jens Stoltenberg served as Norway’s industry minister and finance minister, and ultimately became prime minister.

KYRIAKOS MITSOTAKIS

Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who has been in power since 2019, was born into a powerful political dynasty.

His father was Konstantinos Mitsotakis, who was in the prime minister’s office in the 1990s, and his grandfather was prominent politician Kyriakos Mitsotakis. The current PM’s great-uncle was Eleftherios Venizelos, a prominent leader of the Greek liberation movement and a prime minister for 12 years.

It runs in the family: Dora Bakoyannais, the prime minister’s sister, served as minister of foreign affairs and minister of culture. She was also the first female mayor of Athens. Her son Kostas was also a mayor of Athens.

There’s not just a Mitsotakis dynasty — in the Papandreou family, there’s Georgios Papandreou (who was prime minister), and his son Andreas (who was prime minister), and his children George (who was prime minister) and Nikos (an MEP).

ALEXANDER DE CROO

Back to Belgium. Just like Charles Michel, Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has politics in his genes. His father Herman De Croo is a well-known politician and former minister of education, transport and foreign trade, who retired from politics in 2019 but who was a Belgian MP for a whopping 48 years.

Alexander De Croo switched from working in the private sector to politics in 2009, when he was elected without any political experience to be party leader of the Flemish liberals of Open VLD. He later became a minister in charge of development and the digital agenda (De Croo, a tech geek, still oversees the country’s cybersecurity center and has handled EU negotiations on cybersecurity files during the Belgian Council presidency).

De Croo became prime minister in 2020, at the head of a seven-party coalition.

MATEUSZ MORAWIECKI

Former Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki, from the nationalist Law and Justice party, has a famous activist father.

Kornel Morawiecki was a founder and leader of Fighting Solidarity, a radical splinter of the Solidarity movement that fought against Communism. He was later elected to Poland’s lower chamber of parliament.

Mateusz Morawiecki worked as a chairman of a bank before becoming minister of development in 2015, then minister of finance, sport, and deputy minister. He took over as prime minister in 2017, before losing last year’s election to Donald Tusk.

VÁCLAV KLAUS JR

Former Czech MP Václav Klaus Jr., who retired from political life in 2021, has a track record in politics stretching back decades.

So does his father, former two-term Czech President Václav Klaus.

The two have had very similar policies (some opposition politicians coined the term “Klausism” as both are seen to embody national conservatism mixed with economic liberalism) and sat in the same Civic Democratic Party (ODS), co-founded by Klaus Sr.

The younger Klaus was expelled from the party in 2019 for making “controversial statements,” including that he wouldn’t vote for ODS despite being a member. He then created a far-right, Euroskeptic party Tricolor Citizens’ Movement, endorsed by politicians like Nigel Farage and Viktor Orbán.

MONIKA HOHLMEIER

German MEP Monika Hohlmeier, chair of the EU Parliament’s budgetary control committee and a member of the European People’s Party, is the daughter of Franz Josef Strauss, a former defense minister under Konrad Adenauer.

Hohlmeier served as a Bavarian state minister for education and cultural affairs until 2005, and won a European Parliament seat in 2009.

Her father had to resign from his position as defense minister after the Spiegel affair, when two reporters from Der Spiegel were investigated for treason for writing an article on Germany’s defense capabilities.

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