2023-11-06 19:26:00
The news surprised everyone this Monday evening. Bart Somers leaves the Flemish government. “This choice was above all motivated by the love of my city,” the now former regional minister of local authorities announced on X.
Elected best mayor in the world in 2016, the liberal will therefore take back his mayorship of Mechelen, held for two decades and temporarily set aside. During a recent Major Interview given to La Derniere Heure, the Malinois, who defines himself as a “fairly radical” municipalist, made no secret of preferring the mayorship to other political functions. And Bart Somers has had mandates: president of the Open VLD between 2004 and 2009, minister-president in 2003 and since 2019 regional minister.
Bart Somers, “Best mayor in the world” and political heavyweight: “The biggest mistake Flanders could make is to separate”
“It’s not up to me to decide who will succeed me”
Although Somers claims to support the presidency of his party, this departure appears as yet another episode in the endless series of defections within the Open VLD, and highlights – once again – the current malaise within the liberals Flemish.
Defender of a “social” line, Bart Somers was not really in the good graces of the “De Croo clan”. The recent appointment of Paul Van Tigchelt to the Ministry of Justice, highly controversial internally, had also reshuffled the cards in the Antwerp constituency. Faced with this newcomer and party president Tom Ongena as likely head of the regional and federal lists, the mayor of Mechelen announced his withdrawal from national politics by settling for a last place in 2024.
By the way, President Ongena loses precisely with this resignation his seat as deputy in the Flemish parliament, which he occupied as a substitute for Somers.
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Who will then take over the ministry at Flemish level? The matter is currently pending. The decision should be made official in the coming days. “It’s not up to me to decide who succeeds me,” Somers commented. “I hope my successor is from the new generation, which has many talented people.”
Several names are mentioned: the Bruges alderman Jasper Pillen or the president of the senate, Stephanie D’Hose from Ghent… but also, even if it seems more improbable, Gwendolyn Rutten. Unfortunately a candidate for Van Quick’s succession, the popular mayor of Aarschot had difficulty digesting being rejected in favor of someone not elected, and had even announced – with applause – her departure from the national scene. His return would appear preposterous, but would allow us to play the card of reconciliation in a party divided and bloodless in the polls.
La Libre Belgique survey of October 12, 2023 ©IPM Graphics
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