2023-08-07 08:15:00
“A fall without a parachute…” This is how Véronique Waroux sums up the dark period that followed the end of her mandate in the Walloon parliament. This former deputy CDH (Les Engagés, now) experienced a crossing of the desert when she tried to retrain in 2019. She is however a civil engineer by training but this prestigious title was not of great help to her.
The ex-humanist delivers a poignant testimony on her political life and the psychological pain that invaded her when she left it. “To tell you how badly I was following my parliamentary experience: I had a notebook next to my bed and, for a while, I wrote in it at night that I wanted to die. Dark thoughts, lack of results, feeling of failure…”
The joy of being an alderman: “I had a blast”
Véronique Waroux has had two careers as an elected official. The first as an alderman in Pérulwez, the second as a regional deputy in Namur. “In college, I had a blast. I was super poorly paid but it was fantastic. I had at least ten ideas a day. Every hour was different. I immediately got into the business. And then I was sent back to the communal opposition…”
She entered the Walloon parliament in favor of the 2014 elections. Her career took off? No, she becomes disillusioned quickly. This mandate, less concrete than municipal management, did not suit him. “In parliament, it’s very static, she admits. The deputy is often a mere push button. I was a lion in a cage, the hours went by. The debates, at times, seemed endless. I didn’t like the political game which constantly pits the majority once morest the opposition, it wasted a lot of time. The collaborators of the parliamentary group spun us questions, speeches which we then mumbled… We broached important subjects, yes, but the decisions were cast without sufficient reflection or consultation of outside experts. Personally, I prefer groundwork. That’s why I loved sitting in the Senate (as a Community Senator, Editor’s note). I would have damned myself to be able to stay there (laughs).”
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The collaborators of the parliamentary group gave us questions, speeches that we then mumbled…”
Major conflict with “Fournicator”
Another element will weigh heavily. Véronique Waroux’s relationship with Dimitri Fourny, then head of the CDH group, is detestable. After leaving the regional assembly, she will denounce the behavior of the one she calls “Fournicator”… The former mayor of Neufchâteau, convicted since then of electoral fraud, disgusted her with politics. “With him it was really difficult. I hated this rule which imposed on the deputies to stupidly vote in one direction and to obey because the majority agreements imposed it. In the Ceta folder, for example. I wanted to reject the text. So as not to make waves, I had left Namur before the vote. On the road, phone calls, pressure, internal party threats… I turned around and voted for Ceta to save my other files. But I never digested it.” In 2016, following a long controversy, the PS-CDH majority had indeed accepted the signing of this trade treaty between the European Union and Canada.
”I passed for a pain in the ass”
With the elections approaching, Véronique Waroux understands that she will not be able to appear in useful order on the CDH lists. She will have served only one five-year term. “You had to be lucid, I was in a party that was not growing. We expected to lose a seat in my constituency and I was in the collateral damage. All this was decided without the slightest consideration. I passed for a pain in the ass. At the end of 2018, the discrepancies had multiplied. In addition, the partnership with the MR (in 2017, the CDH had returned the PS to the opposition by overthrowing the government alliance in Wallonia in favor of the liberals, Editor’s note) did not correspond to my sensitivities. Impregnated by the environmental and climatic emergency, I saw that things were not going in the right direction. I feel eco-anxiety and the obligation to do something regarding this stress.”
These (many) deputies who leave our parliaments
The break with politics is consummated. Véronique Waroux burns all her ships. “At the CDH, I was offered to put myself on the extra lists anyway, without hope of being elected: then they would find me something (a remunerative mandate or a job, Editor’s note). But I said no. I no longer found myself in what the party had become. At first, Benoît Lutgen’s speech convinced me: I was Madame Climat and Madame Biodiversité. But we voted the opposite of the positions I defended! I went into politics without a career plan, which was probably a big mistake…”
After having exercised political responsibilities, the former deputy is convinced that she will be able to bounce back easily on the job market. But… “In my professional life, people have always come looking for me. I thought with pride that with my degree in civil engineering and having attended parliaments, I had a double CV from hell. I had contacted a recruitment company and the lady in charge of my file told me that she didn’t know what to do with my CV… The rest of my retraining looked like this. I applied but it didn’t work. These refusals were also perhaps linked to the tense relations that I had known in politics: it was perhaps considered that I had a problem with the hierarchy, which is not at all the case.
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I thought with pride that with my degree in civil engineering and having attended parliaments, I had a double CV from hell.
As senator (of the Community), from 2014 to 2019, Véronique Waroux appreciated the quality of the debates that were held there. ©com
When the phone no longer rings…
His phone then stops ringing. Silence sets in, as well as a feeling of total emptiness. “I was lost. What did I do wrong? Those I had helped changed sidewalks when they saw me, I no longer existed, I had no more use. However, I have followed many training courses. I tried to set myself up as an independent. But it was in the middle of Covid: it didn’t interest anyone, I didn’t interest anyone. Arrived at 50 years old, the girl, she is expired… I did not expect to break my face at this point following the parliament.
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Arrived at 50 years old, the girl, she is expired… I did not expect to break my face at this point following the parliament.
Véronique Waroux was finally able to enter the Walloon administration as a specialist in environmental management. Over her entire career, she has only been able to value six years of seniority for this new job. At 54, she is starting (almost) from zero. She remains bitter regarding the evolution of her former political formation, which has become Les Engagés. “We take the same ones and start over… We are not going to fundamentally change them. I do not recognize myself in the current political offer.”
The CDH becomes “Les Engagés”: on paper, the bet of the break is successfulVéronique Waroux, former senator and deputy CDH. ©JC Guillaume
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