2023-09-15 04:42:00
The political transfer window is well and truly underway. This time, it is Défi who, for La Libre, presents its new recruit. This is Emin Ozkara, Brussels MP and municipal councilor in Schaerbeek.
”My choice fell on Défi because I share its values and beliefs. We can have different sensitivities. But, within Défi, and unlike other parties, we can have an internal debate,” Emin Ozkara immediately emphasized.
The man, accompanied by his wife Fatma, whom he presents as his “campaign leader”, immediately tries to remove the doubts that his career could raise about the sincerity of his new commitment. “My wife and I are open-minded people. We owe a lot to Belgium which welcomed us, but we are also proud of our origins (Turkish, Editor’s note) which are an asset. My thoughts have matured, and it is not on a whim, nor for a guaranteed place on a list, that I joined Défi.”
Emin Ozkara, in fact, was a socialist representative for 18 years.
He left the PS in January 2020, at the end of an incredible sequence which saw him enter into open conflict with certain elected officials from his group.
Brussels MP Emin Özkara leaves the PS group: “His departure is in no way surprising”
Défi weighed the pros and cons. No one at the top of the party is unaware of Emin Ozkara’s somewhat fanciful reputation. The leaders of Défi obviously know that they are recruiting a formidable elected official on the ground. An elected official who belongs to the rare species of those who “make” their seat. In 2019, Emin Ozkara achieved the tenth socialist score (with 4,385 votes), while he only occupied seventeenth place on the regional list.
His arrival in the ranks of the ex-FDF is only half a surprise. The deputy, who sat as an independent, had for three years followed the line of the List of the acting mayor of Schaerbeek, Cécile Jodogne.
“In a region where divisions tend to emerge along community lines, Emin is anything but that,” assures François De Smet, president of Défi, thus ensuring that electoral trials are prevented. That’s what appeals to me about him. He does not have an electorate made up entirely of people of Turkish origin. Emin Ozkara is one of those people that politics needs to build bridges between communities.”
Köksal s’en va, Ozkara arrive
Not three months ago, Défi had another Brussels MP “poached”, also very popular in the Turkish community, and municipal councilor in Schaerbeek: Sadik Köksal joined the MR. The liberals, in fact, initiated under David Leisterh, the president of the Brussels MR, an offensive campaign to recruit candidates from working-class and diverse neighborhoods.
With the arrival of Emin Ozkara, the Amarante party can hope to retain some of the votes of the Turkish community, particularly important in Schaerbeek, which it had collected in the last election. This is all the more important as the municipal majority is hanging by a thread.
”Köksal knows that Emin Ozkara does more vocals than him”
challenge, de smet, challenge, president, seat, Brussels deputy, Brussels, emin ozkara ©ennio cameriere
”We can make the opposite hypothesis. Discussions have been underway for more than a year with Emin Ozkara. Sadiq Köksal knows that Emin does more vocals than him. And if the latter joins the Défi list, it would be more complicated for him in the regional elections, points out Bernard Clerfayt, Brussels Minister of Employment and mayor of Schaerbeek. I have known Emin since 2000, when he was elected in Schaerbeek. I saw him evolve. At the start of his career, he was a little lost in the political world, and poorly accompanied. At the PS, he was locked into a role of catching votes from the Turks. Then, I saw him change, becoming a generalist elected official. I perceived his departure from the PS as a desire to free oneself from a form of corporalism.”
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Emin, at the start of his political career, arrived saying to people: I am an advisor, I will be able to give you this, bring this. Because he didn’t know how it worked. Today he says: I can explain to you, give you the right path to find the people who will tell you what is possible. But I can’t guarantee you’ll get what you want.”
“Emin, at the start of his political career, arrived saying to people: ‘I am an advisor, I will be able to give you this, bring this,’ remembers Cécile Jodogne, FF mayor of Schaerbeek. Because he didn’t know how it worked. Today he says: ‘I can explain to you, give you the right path to find the right people. But I can’t guarantee you’ll get what you want.”
Ideologically compatible?
However, the question arises of the ideological compatibility between Défi, an eminently secular party, and Emin Ozkara, who voted against the obligation to stun in the case of ritual slaughter.
”Défi will not change your mind on the subject, assures François De Smet. But if Emin wants to make his internal difference heard, it’s very democratic for us. We are not a sect.”
“I am for social, professional and religious diversity,” continues Emin Ozkara. My wife is not veiled, we are secular people, but we are believers. One does not prevent the other. At some point, you have to break your shell and serve all the people of Brussels. I don’t want Schaerbeek to resemble other Brussels municipalities like Molenbeek, where communitarianism is gaining ground. At the PS, there was precisely this very community side. It was ‘You go into your community and you do cronyism.’ I was pushed to make files of Turkish ABSL to target them and make my voices. It wasn’t me, it’s not us… At the PS, there was no internal debate, no possibility of giving my point of view. It was a diktat. There is also the question of transparency. We gave money to certain non-profit organizations, I wanted to know what it was for and that posed a problem to me.”
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