In a long interview given to the Flemish newspaper, the liberal says she made her decision known to Egbert Lachaert, then president of Open Vld, when establishing the lists for the future elections in June 2024. “I told him that it was not necessary, as my seat was vacant,” she relates. “I like to make my own decisions,” she said of the surprising news.
A prominent face of the Covid crisis, Maggie De Block spent nine years in the federal government. A former general practitioner, she left her profession to first become Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration in the Di Rupo government (2011 to 2014). After her time at the Ministry of Health, Maggie De Block took on the role of group leader of the Open VLD in the Chamber in 2020. A position she will leave following the June elections.
She now wants to concentrate on her private life and be a full-time grandmother to her grandchildren aged 1 and almost 4 years old. The former minister also regrets not having been present enough for her own children at the time. “I want to be there for them today.”
