2023-04-20 16:39:00
What is happening in the town led by a college of aldermen still dominated by the Gemeentebelangen (Communal Interests) party, which has become powerful under the rule of Léopold Lippens, who died in February 2021 after 40 years as mayor?
Controversial lease contract
According The time, citing local sources, the audit covers certain activities of Kris Demeyere (Gemeentebelangen), first alderman of the municipality. Alongside his mandate, this Knokkois born in 1970 is the boss of a family car garage located in his own town and also in Bruges. The listeners want to know more about the order from the city of Knokke for vehicles from Demeyere Cars. Have the conditions of the public market been respected? Has the independent leasing company in question fully played its role in guaranteeing the legal conditions in this area? Are we in a situation where there may be conflicts of interest? Auditors will need to find answers to these questions. We will probably have to wait until June before knowing their conclusions.
But it’s not just a leasing contract that raises eyebrows. Kris Demeyere is a very popular alderman in his coastal stronghold. He tells himself that his influence with real estate developers is not small. It would even be very (too?) important. On his initiative, important projects have been carried out. We would have skipped stages… At the college of aldermen, the signals then turned orange. At the end of 2022, Demeyere was pushed to let go of its key skills: urban planning and urban renewal. Recycled, since then, in the economy and public works, the man has not yet thrown in the towel. He continues to exert his influence and no one seems to be able to stop him.
Nearly 15 million euros requested for a house in Knokke: luxury real estate does not know the crisis
A million euros in the family garage
While many questions remain unanswered, the pressure is mounting in Knokke. The credibility of the municipality had already taken a bad blow since the previous financial audit, in 2020. A relative of Kris Demeyere had then invested one million euros in the loss-making family garage of the alderman. A year after the financial transaction, Kris Demeyere, in charge of urban planning at the time, was present at a meeting of the college which was to discuss this transaction in particular. Audit Vlaanderen had estimated that the alderman should have waived this meeting where he was both judge and party. He could not ignore that one of his relations was in charge of the company. Kris Demeyere then replied that he did not know who was running the company concerned.
Attempt to destabilize
The new affair again discredits the Knock local government and damages its reputation. A year and a half before the municipal elections (October 2024), the opposition (N-VA, Vooruit, Groen, and Vlaams Belang) is sharpening its weapons and does not hesitate to make common cause to try to weaken the powerful party of mayor (Gemeentebelangen) who alone won nearly 70% of the votes in Knokke-Heist.
But within the majority, some do not hesitate to speak of an attempt at destabilization. “What is regrettable is to cover the chosen ones with opprobrium (of the majority party Gemeentebelangen, Editor’s note) only because there is a rotten apple among them”says a source.
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