From Journalist to Politician: The Inspiring Journey of Florence Reuter

2024-02-24 10:40:00

Former journalist and news presenter, Florence Reuter left the media in 2007 to devote herself to politics. So twice as a young mother (three times since), she crossed the border, sometimes tenuous, which separates journalists from politicians. Since then, nothing has stopped: federal deputy, regional deputy, alderman, emergency resumption of the Waterloo mayorate in 2015 (following the resignation of Serge Kubla) in the middle of the bicentenary of the battle. In 2019, she returned to the federal parliament while taking care of her commune and her family. Second best score in Brabant, behind Charles Michel, here she is 5 years later at the top of the federal MR list for Walloon Brabant.

What was the trigger for your departure from journalism to politics?

”It’s been quite a journey. First, I became a mother twice in two years. Then, I was no longer in agreement with the way we treated the information. There were events that touched me very hard, I am thinking of the quintuple infanticide in Nivelles. This is where I grew up. I needed to do something useful. I might have gone to work in an NGO. But you don’t start like that when you have two babies… I really needed to be able to make myself useful, to try to change things, very modestly, rather than always saying that things aren’t going well. Because when you are a journalist there is always more bad news than good news. And I thought regarding that, telling myself that my children are evolving in that world. One day, I had just presented the newspaper. I was returning to Waterloo. I was in the ring. And I telephoned the president of the party who most closely matched my values, it was the president of the MR at the time: Didier Reynders. He didn’t even know my number. I called, just left a voicemail. He called me back very quickly, almost straight away. I just wanted to chat. We met. I absolutely hadn’t decided, I hesitated a lot. Afterwards, I told myself that there was a dose of unconsciousness.”

How did it unfold followingwards?

”It was the day of the debate for the French presidency. I called my editor and we talked for over four hours. I went through all the colors, emotionally speaking, because I was attached to my work and I knew where I was going. In the end, I told him: “If I do it, I might regret it, but if I don’t do it, I will regret it for a long time, so I’m going, too bad”.

Many people from the media world go into politics. For what reasons do you think?

”To do politics, you have to love people. We don’t do politics for ourselves. I needed to get into politics to make myself useful. So what drives the others? I was 37 years old, I still had many good years ahead of me at the newspaper. I loved what I did. But if we really want to make things happen, we have to roll up our sleeves and go for it. And it must be done for good reasons. I hope that all those who are involved and who come from civil society do so for good reasons. I didn’t do it for my ego. If I needed to be in the spotlight, I would have stayed in journalism.”

Journalists are known to be loudmouths…

”It’s clear, but they didn’t come to get me. When a media personality arrives, popularity plays a role, whereas a young person who is going to enter politics will have to row for years to make himself known. The key is to confirm followingwards. I’ve been here for 17 years. At several levels of power. I took over the town in a hurry and I think I met the challenge. A journalist said to me: “Oh yes, it’s true, you were a journalist”… It’s the greatest compliment anyone’s ever paid me. We forgot that I was the TV candidate, we now say to ourselves: “she is a real politician with her ideas, her values” and I think I have remained myself with my same critical spirit, my same outlook than when I was a journalist.”

Mayor, federal deputy but also wife and mother… How do you manage all of this?

”I have a wonderful husband. We were both journalists, in the same editorial team (this is Georges Dewulf, Editor’s note), so we know what the hazards are. He was going abroad, I was presenting the newspaper. But we have always organized ourselves to make it work. That there was always one of the two at home for the children, when they were little. I think it’s really important in a family. It is the friends who suffer the consequences because we preserve our cocoon. Our family, our three children, we preserve them. Leaves, vacations, it’s five people. And then it’s a huge organization, that’s clear. It really has to be organized and above all always have a sense of the essentials. If tomorrow one of my children is sick and needs their mother, their mother will be there. That and also knowing how to say no.”

Second score in Walloon Brabant, for the federal government, in 2019 and now top of the list, what does that mean?

”First of all, it’s a huge responsibility, I can’t fail on this one. It is also a real recognition of the work. A list is a series of elements, it is not just a head of list. I felt I was legitimate but followingward, I wasn’t going to wage an internal war. If I don’t agree, I will discuss it internally. I’m not going to release it to the press. I’m rather a discreet person at that level. And if someone had told me that I was ultimately second, I wouldn’t have found it fair. I would have gone to discuss… or not actually, because I had given my arguments but others had equally valid ones. If they hadn’t offered it to me, I wouldn’t have made it an illness. First or second, it doesn’t matter, the important thing is to carry out the project. It also shows the population that the MR is a party that is evolving and that it is not just men who lead. We have many women at the top of the list in French-speaking Belgium. In Walloon Brabant, it is also a good signal with the number of women mayors. We are in a lot of majorities. It’s a great recognition of the work accomplished.”

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Would you be interested in becoming a minister?

”I don’t know, I’m not going to say no because you never know. What is clear is that I am not letting down the residents of Waterloo and that I will be a mayoral candidate to succeed me in October 2024. What is also clear is that when we do politics, it is not It’s not regarding staying on the balcony, it’s regarding taking responsibility. Before becoming mayor, I was asked if I wanted to become one one day. At the time I said: “why not, we don’t know what tomorrow will bring”. I didn’t think it would be under these conditions (Editor’s note: the departure of Serge Kubla when he was indicted, 9 years ago to the day). The community remains my priority. And in fact in 2015, when I was asked to resign from the (Walloon) Parliament to take over the municipality, I did not hesitate for a second! I owed that to the people of Waterloo. If I had wanted, it would have been more comfortable to stay in Parliament and not take the mayoralty, especially in these conditions. But when you do things with your heart and your gut, you don’t think regarding all that. So I don’t have a career plan. And today, my town needs me, I think… Well, I hope.

You, Olivier Maroy, Hadja Lahbib, etc. and more recently Marc Ysaye and Julie Taton. Why this enthusiasm among media personalities for the MR?

”Because it is perhaps the largest popular movement and the least dogmatic? That’s why I went there. One of the fundamental reasons is for its values ​​of freedom. We are the only party in Belgium to have complete freedom of voting regarding ethics. As journalists, we don’t want our opinions dictated to us. For me it is fundamental. This is what made me move towards the liberal party. And in terms of history, and we forget it, the liberal party is the oldest party in the world. And for having reread old liberal manifestos: the liberal party is a social party but always with this touch of freedom.”

What do you think of the controversies surrounding Marc Ysaye?

(Long silence) “I don’t know. I find somewhere that it is good for a political group like ours to have, I am thinking of Marc Ysaye, someone from civil society. But when you’re in politics, you have to pay attention to everything. I remember receiving, in 2018, a young man who wanted to be on my list. He was very nice, and worked to pay for his studies. And then I came across his profile by chance. And I saw that he was in photos with Marine Le Pen everywhere. I said to myself “oops”… I think that when you’re not involved in politics, to err is human. And who has never heard someone’s idea and said to themselves: “Hey, that’s not bad… Oh man, it’s someone from the extreme left or the extreme right”? I think it’s a bit of a false trial that we’re making once morest Marc Ysaye. Especially since he said it was a mistake, which he regretted.”

Former radio host Marc Ysaye looks back on his arrival in politics: “I was saddened to see the kind of hatred that was unleashed once morest me”

Ecolo and the PS in Brussels have expressed their desire to avoid governing with the MR following the elections. They also fear that Georges-Louis Bouchez will behave like a “mother-in-law” with the people of Brussels. What do you think ?

”That it’s a big PR stunt and that it’s only going to be that way until the elections. As much as we choose our friends, our private life, we do not choose our colleagues. Whatever the professional environment. We will always have someone next to us with whom we get along less well because that is human nature. So here, we are doing politics and once once more, what matters is not the person, what matters is the project behind it. We adhere to a project, a program, whatever the level of power. But there is one thing that will always stop me, and that is the extremes of left or right. That’s not possible. I might never make the slightest concession at that level.”

In Brussels, even in the event of an electoral victory, the MR risks remaining in opposition: “No one wants Bouchez as a mother-in-law…”
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