2023-12-28 09:38:00
For the young 31-year-old politician, this appointment is the crowning achievement of a political destiny pursued at full speed. Unlike Conner Rousseau, son of a mayor and immersed in politics since his first steps, Melissa Depraetere did not encounter politics before her higher studies. She is the daughter of a housekeeper and a welder, and grew up in a modest family. The turning point came when she attended an audience intervention by Caroline Gennez, during her first year of political science at the University of Ghent. Seduced, she decided to join the party which was still called the SP.A.
Rousseau’s “travel companion”, little known on the French-speaking side… Who is Melissa Depraetere, the new president of the Flemish socialists?
Crombez’s legacy
This is how the student managed to land an internship in the office of John Crombez and Johann Vande Lanotte, before being noticed by Alain Top, the mayor of the commune of Harelbeke, where she is from. The latter had already noted a certain maturity in the aspiring politician. “During the municipal elections in 2012, Melissa was the youngest candidate on the list. However, that did not prevent her from giving a speech on election night, in front of activists. She has always had a good sense of debate and negotiations,” he explains. Qualities which then convinced him to offer her a position as a parliamentary assistant in the Chamber. In this position, she distinguished herself on defense issues, with active work on the issue of replacing F-16 aircraft.
His important work in parliament will be rewarded with a second place on the federal list in 2019 in his province. Elected with more than 12,000 votes, she then became a deputy at the age of 27. Very quickly, through their ideological and generational proximity, she placed herself in the close guard of Conner Rousseau, also from the young generation promoted during the renewal of the party launched by John Crombez.
Quite naturally, when the position of group leader in the House became available with the departure of Meryame Kitir to the federal government, Conner Rousseau decided to appoint her. At the time, Melissa Depraetere didn’t imagine she would get the job. “I never had the goal of becoming a group leader,” she explains to us. But I tried to give it 100% and do my best. As group leader, I saw myself leading a new team following the elections with many new deputies.”
Vooruit still counts on Rousseau, despite his resignation: “Melissa Depraetere is the leader, but Conner still has a place in the center of the game”
Less exuberant than “King Connah”
But this projection into the future was cut short, with the resignation of the fallen star of Flemish socialism. Next June, Melissa Depraetere will finally be at the negotiating table with the other party presidents, rather than in parliament. Once once more, she hadn’t really felt it coming. “It all happened so quickly, I didn’t really have time to think,” she admits. The young president experienced a first month without downtime. “As soon as I arrived, I had to validate all our lists for the next elections and ensure that the preparation for the campaign followed its normal course. At the same time, all the media kept calling me to find out more regarding Conner’s future within the party, it was pretty intense.”
In one month, Melissa Depraetere has already left a mark on her presidency that is different from her predecessor. First, by emphasizing these social origins very far from those of the former president, sometimes seen as a little too “bling-bling” for a socialist. “I perhaps have a warmer message than Conner’s, less harsh on the man,” she explains. My speech is always marked by my desire to improve the income of hard-working people,” insists Depraetere. “She leads the party with a lot of empathy,” says Frank Vandenbroucke, Vooruit Deputy Prime Minister. My meetings with her are always straight to the point. But our informal exchanges are constant, always with this concern that she has to be concrete, perhaps more than in communication.”
However, to say that the new president of the Socialists is adopting a different political line would be false. If she perhaps ticks more socialist markers, she remains the worthy heir of the positions of her predecessor. “We have spent the last four years building the party to what it is today. Conner and I therefore completely share the same vision of modern socialism, because we developed the program together,” she confirms.
For Melissa Depraetere, the challenge has only just begun. Thanks to his outspokenness and popularity, Conner Rousseau had doubled his party’s score in the polls in a few months. The challenge for Vooruit is to prevent this work of seduction from collapsing like a house of cards between now and the elections, with a personality at its head that is certainly less exuberant, but also less media-driven.
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