Jean-Pierre Detremmerie

Jean-Pierre Detremmerie (10 October 1940 – 20/21 February 2016) was a Belgian politician and long serving former mayor of Mouscron. He was active within the francophone Christian Democratic Party (cdH) for many years, and a Member of Parliament between 1981 and 2003.

He was known to colleagues, informally, as "Detrem". It was determined that he had committed suicide by hanging, having suffered from depression for several years. Since December 2011 he had been facing criminal charges in connection with the allegedly opaque financial arrangements of his local football club, which he formerly chaired.

Life Provenance and early years Jean-Pierre Detremmerie was born in Mouscron, traditionally a French speaking textile manufacturing town sandwiched between the border with France to the south, and the Dutch language speaking province of Eastern Flanders to the north, Following local government boundary changes, he became the alderman responsible for youth and sport in the newly enlarged municipality,

National politics On the national stage, in February 1981 he also took over from Devos as a member of the lower house of the Belgian Parliament, representing his local electoral district of Doornik-Aat-Moeskroen / Tournai-Ath-Mouscron. became a recurring leitmotif of his political approach.

Wallon politics Between 1981 and 1995, and more briefly between 2004 and 2005, he was also a member of the Wallonia Parliament, which meets in Namur, and of the Wallonia Parliament's Brussels mirror image, the Parliament of the French Community: these have a political remit across the French and German speaking parts of Belgium. In April 2005 he resigned from the Wallonia parliament in favour of Damien Yzerbyt (1963-2014).

Troubles In 2005 Detremmerie's fortunes went into sharp reverse, which was reflected by various allegations of misfeasance which he himself has always contested. The driving issue involved his local football club, Royal Excelsior Mouscron, of which for many years Detremmerie was the president. In 2004–05 Mouscron reached fifth position in the premier league rankings, and in 2006 the club celebrated its tenth year in the Belgian premier league. By that time it had become apparent that the club had been overspending, however, and was badly overburdened by debt: although it remained a premier league club till the end, for the rest of the decade it sat resolutely in the bottom half of the league, with a corresponding decline in ticket sales. On 28 December 2009, Mouscron announced its third forfeit in a row because of enduring financial problems, and was thus, according to Belgian league rules, excluded from competition, with all its previous results in the ongoing competition being scrapped. The club in its current form ceased to exist, with all its players (and staff) becoming free agents.

“On ne peut pas nier qu’il a fait des choses incroyables pour la ville de Mouscron. C’est également lui qui est venu chercher tous les membres de la majorité actuelle ou presque, dont moi. C’est en tout cas une fin horrible, qui plus est lorsque l’on a eu une vie comme la sienne”