2023-09-06 16:36:00
It is now official. With 20 “yes”, 16 “no” and one abstention, Saliha Raiss (One. brussels), 35, replaces Jef Van Damme as Alderman for Public Works, Dutch-speaking Affairs and Municipal Properties in Molenbeek. A graduate in political science at the VUB, specializing in international relations and human resources management, she then worked for the Vande Lanotte cabinet before dealing with housing and education issues for her party in the Brussels parliament. Today, alongside Mayor Catherine Moureaux (PS), the young elected official wants to put an end to the controversy concerning her veil launched by the MR, majority partner, following her appointment. Even if it means dodging angry questions like the line of the Brussels socialists on secularism. The goal: (finally) get to work.
Appointment of Saliha Raïss: a double-edged moment for the PS and the MR, the two parties of the Molenbeek majority
Saliha Raiss, in the brouhaha concerning you, you have chosen to remain silent. How have you lived these last two months?
Saliha Raiss: Very serenely and very well surrounded. I’m not a fan of divisive remarks, so I’m not interested in being part of this debate. What interests me is the reality of work. So, if I am invited on such questions, I will be the first to want to take part in the debate.
Exactly what work awaits you as an alderman?
SR: I am the alderwoman for Dutch-speaking Education. It is the shortage of teachers on the Dutch-speaking side. At the beginning of the summer, we started from a deficit of thirteen teachers, we are down to more than three. I am extremely proud of it.
Secondly, there is also a project that is extremely close to my heart. The “empty lunch boxes” plan that we launched earlier this week for a test in the Paloke school. Inspired by Catherine Moureaux on the French-speaking side, this project makes sure to be able to guarantee healthy meals for the students. We are looking for the funds, it is on the right track.
Your party president made shocking remarks regarding Molenbeek. Close to the PS, Marc Uyttendaele repeated on LN24 that, according to him, a member of the executive should not wear a sign of conviction. Is there a malaise among socialists in Brussels on issues of secularism?
Catherine Moureaux: I have made a clear distinction between the political and democratic fact of access to a political function and to a political mandate. I find it extremely uncomfortable and it causes a lot of confusion that we can mix the two. Saliha will be part of a college of aldermen. There will be ten of us and we will make decisions together. We are not in the organization of the rules of the State, we are in another debate. When we decided to present a municipal list in Molenbeek with three veiled women, two at the PS, one at Vooruit, nobody talked regarding that. These are three candidates out of 45, it is a representation that we consider logical in relation to the territory.
If, when entering into discussion with the MR to form this majority, there had been a veto on one or other of the members of our group, the fact of working together would have been called into question. Ecolo had put a veto on another personality of our party, I directly told them that they exceeded the limits.
There has already been a veiled alderman in Molenbeek, Myriam Bouselmati (Ecolo) in 2000. That did not start a debate.
CM We have a president of the MR who is inspired by Sarkozy. He says so himself. There is no more divisive than Sarkozy. He does not seek to unite, he seeks to oppose. At our level as local representatives, it’s good to propose a project that will bring people together. In a PS-MR college, it is even more obvious.
SR I hear that Mr. Bouchez spreads out enormously on my person. Me, I would like to invite him over coffee because I don’t think he knows me. Since I heard nothing but my piece of fabric on my head. I am much more than that. I invite him to come and get to know the reality on the ground in Molenbeek. He is alien to this reality. I am also a delegate of RWDM Girls. If he wants, we might play a nice game together.
And then, I am not the alderman of neutrality. I don’t know if it exists, but I wouldn’t ask for it. I am alderwoman for Dutch-speaking Education, Public Works and Municipal Properties. And so I would like us to discuss these projects. Twelve months before the elections, and even less if we look at the regional and federal elections, the level should be raised. I know that Georges-Louis Bouchez is a fan of reality TV. But here is real life.”
Bouchez and Rousseau cross swords over the appointment of Saliha Raiss: “A policy can lie to Parliament as long as it does not wear the veil”
A baptism of fire that she will have faced through the ice. This is how Saliha Raiss takes on an executive function for the first time. About the first time, in the memory of several observers, never a swearing in has been possible thanks to the opposition, and this to the detriment of a member of the majority. On the left, some even say that the elected Liberals had a choice: vote once morest Raiss, or leave the party. Regardless of the contents of the ballot slipped into the ballot box anonymously on Wednesday evening, the file will leave traces. And the local socialists now have an arrow in their quiver if they wanted to eject the liberal counterparts, when forming a majority, in a year’s time.
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