2023-09-29 17:59:00
For several weeks, the rumor concerning the mayor’s list for the 2024 municipal elections was gaining momentum in the streets of La Hulpe. The subject ? Was mayor Christophe Dister (MR), current mayor, going to run for a fourth term at the head of this neighboring bourgeois village of Overijse? The veil was lifted this Friday evening: the liberal will not be a candidate for his succession. The current alderman for Urban Planning and Housing, Xavier Verhaeghe (MR) will draw the future mayor’s list during the next local elections. Christophe Dister, for his part, is not completely leaving local political life, he will push candidate from the list: “I am not stopping my political commitment. I want to continue to be involved in the list and give the best by pushing it,” he explains to us during the MR barbecue organized at the La Hulpe football club.
Christophe Dister announces that he will no longer be head of the list in the next municipal elections in La Hulpe. ©DR
Elected municipal councilor in 1995, Christophe Dister became alderman in 2000 before donning the mayoral sash in 2006. In 2019, he also became president of the Brabant intermunicipal association InBW. In nearly 30 years of political life and almost 24 years in the Lahulpois executive, the mayor thinks that it is time to give way to the new generation: “Being mayor is for me the most beautiful political function but you have to be 100%. And today, social networks are more and more present and they destroy motivation. In addition, as mayor, we are very close to the population, we take hits every day.” Christophe Dister therefore wants to be able to work more calmly and highlight the “talented people” on his list: “Xavier has been an alderman since 2018. He is someone who is present, who knows the issues well and is full of motivation. I hope he will become the next mayor in 2024.”
Today, Christophe Dister says he is proud of the work accomplished and that the next generation is taking its course: “It’s a new chapter that is beginning. And I still have a lot of ideas for the town”.
Xavier Verhaeghe: teacher, alderman and future mayor?
At 37, he has been involved in local politics3 since 2012. First a municipal councilor in the opposition, he and his group joined the mayor’s list for the 2018 elections. He joined the MR and became alderman. This Latin teacher in Genval has always lived in La Hulpe and has always been immersed in local political life through his parents: “My dad has always been involved in municipal life, he was president of the merchants, president of the station, etc. My mother was also a municipal councilor and, de facto, present in quite a few local associations”.
Concerning his place as future head of the list, Xavier Verhaeghe says he is “grateful to the partners and other members of the list. It’s a great challenge, confides the person concerned, And even if we are in an absolute majority, a campaign is never easy, nor won”.
Now it remains to build the list because, as Xavier Verhaeghe and Christophe Dister say, there are more candidates than places on the list. We will therefore have to make a choice. What regarding the program? Xavier Verhaeghe intends to continue in the tradition of his predecessor, namely “to preserve the village character of La Hulpe while maintaining the conviviality and dynamism of the commune”. Everything is said for the future head of the list. Now it remains to prepare for the sequel.
1696049813
#Christophe #Dister #longer #mayor #Hulpe #place #young #people
