2023-09-19 04:47:00
Faced with the accusations which he rejects, Mr. Warmoes who, for other reasons he said, had resigned his mandate as deputy in July, resigned from the municipal council of Namur, the last elected position that he occupied.
It is an understatement to say that the affair causes unease in political circles where we recall that Thierry Warmoes has chaired for four years since 2019, the Health and Equal Opportunities Commission of the Chamber, the one where we precisely deal … domestic violence.
“Hit, dragged by my hair, I was a beaten woman”: Ana accuses ex-MP Thierry Warmoes, who assures that his wife “says anything”
Was the PTB aware? Did he know, when he was appointed, in July 2019, that a complaint had been filed once morest the person he chose to chair the commission where measures are taken once morest violence once morest women?
Questioned by our colleague Gauvain Dos Santos, Raoul Hedebouw and Sofie Merckx, respectively president and head of the PTB group in the House of Representatives, affirmed that they did not know it. Except that.
Ana Lara Erazo and Thierry Warmoes. ©DR
Sofie Merckx replied
The question was put to Ms Merckx in these terms. “The facts of which Thierry Warmoes is accused date back to 2019, before he became president of the Health Commission in the House where we talk regarding measures once morest violence once morest women. Do the facts of which he is accused accused were known within the PTB? If so, since when? Why did you let him chair this commission under these conditions?”
Sophie Merckx responded last Tuesday: “We knew that Mr. Warmoes was going through a divorce and that it was complicated. But we were not aware of this suspicion of domestic violence.”
Ms. Merckx adds that she was only informed of the difficulties of Mr. Warmoes’ ex-wife at the end of August, following the victim submitted a letter to ‘Medicine for the People’, the organ health of the PTB.
Unfortunately, this is not what emerges from the messages kept on his smartphone by Mr. Warmoes’ ex-wife. From February 28, 2020, she sought, via Messenger, to alert Ms. Merckx.
In a long message, Ana Lara Erazo details her life as a battered, psychologically abused and financially neglected woman, alone to take care of the children while the household money disappears into the PTB, her husband paying every month between 948 and 1,500 euros to the party while she herself, without resources, depends on the CPAS.
In the message, Ana writes to Ms. Merckx: “Thierry Warmoes attacked me on several occasions, the following-effects of which I have today, with my incapacity to work.”
The small crosses show that the federal MP opened the message. She never responded.
Discomfort in the House: the former president of the “defense of women” commission accused of violence once morest his ex-wife
Raoul Hedebouw responded
For his part, Raoul Hedebouw, also questioned by the DH, replied: “I was not aware of the existence of this complaint. We would have had a completely different discussion if that had been the case. I only knew that ‘there was a messy divorce.’
Raoul Hedebouw, head of the PTB group in the Chamber in 2019 when Thierry Warmoes took over as president of the Health Commission, therefore affirms that he was not aware and that he was only informed very recently, at moment when the DH began to address the subject on September 7, twelve days ago.
Unfortunately, messages kept by Mr. Warmoes’ ex-wife contradict Mr. Hedebouw’s statements.
Raoul Hedebouw ended up blocking sendings on the Messenger application ©Bernard Demoulin and DR
On February 28, 2020 at 10:55 a.m., Ana Lara Erazo sent him a message that Ms. Hedebouw opened, without following up. The ex-wife will also send many others by e-mail and registered mail, including to the parliament on rue de Louvain and to the town hall of Liège where Mr. Hedebouw sits as a municipal councilor.
Mr. Hedebouw will refuse to receive registered mail.
On August 15, further noticing that Mr. Hedebouw has now blocked her on the Messenger application, Ana in pain will send the following message: “Hello Mr. Hedebouw, once once more you have ignored my email of 1/08 /2023 as well as my other from 03/25/2022. Pretending as nothing is normally not your habit. As you are well aware of the situation but prefer to remain silent, this confirms your attitude , that you are complicit.”
Two other PTB deputies
Ulcerated to see her ex-husband chairing this Health and Equal Opportunities Commission in the House since 2019, faced with the indifference of Ms. Merckx and Ms. Hedebouw, Ana Lara Erazo alerts other figures of the PTB, favoring women at the forefront of feminism, femicide, violence once morest women.
On December 6, 2022, Mr. Warmoes’ ex-wife, who had come expressly from Namur, met regional deputy Françoise De Smedt in Brussels, during a demonstration at the Central station in which the head of the PTB group in the Brussels Parliament participated. A block of ice. “Mrs De Smedt, to whom I explained everything, did nothing.”
Ana once more wanted to alert PTB federal deputy Maria Vindevoghel, who ignored her, she said.
Chez Anouk Vandevoorde
“I was not aware in 2019 of the existence of this complaint,” replies Mr. Hedebouw. “We would have had a completely different discussion if that had been the case.”
The PTB announced on July 11, 2019 that it would chair the Health Commission where Thierry Warmoes would then be appointed. At the time, the Namur resident Karl Boulanger headed the Legs section of the PTB. Karl has eyes and ears. He remembers very well. He agreed to testify. “At the beginning of July 2019, I personally participated in the last DirCa meeting (Campaign Directorate, editor’s note) during which we discussed at the PTB the complaint filed by the ex-wife of Thierry Warmoes at the Namur police station. Anouk Vandevoorde participated in this meeting as well as his companion Robin Bruyère. This meeting was held in their dining room, at their home. Robin Bruyère spoke regarding the future of Thierry Warmoes, affirming that he (Warmoes) was going to if necessary, have to take a step aside and that he (Robin Bruyère) would then succeed him as provincial president of the PTB for Namur-Luxembourg”.
Robin Bruyère replaced Warmoes in the House of Representatives. Anouk Vandevoorde is the new president of the PTB Namur -Luxembourg. Ten days ago, she, who participated in the meeting which took place at her home in 2019, reacted as follows on social networks: “I discovered the article this morning in the press”.
Thierry Warmoes resigns from the Namur municipal council following the revelations of La DH
“Absolutely everything “
But let’s let Karl Boulanger continue on what happened at the beginning of July 2019 at the PTB when let’s remember, Raoul Hedebouw affirms that he was not aware: “Raoul Hedebouw was perfectly aware of everything, not only of Mr. Warmoes’ divorce, but also of his ex-wife’s complaint once morest him. Raoul had also instructed Thierry Warmoes to keep him informed of developments in the case, very worried that he was the image that a newly elected PTB deputy accused by his ex-wife of domestic violence might give.
Driving the point home, Karl Boulanger further specifies that “the day Thierry Warmoes was summoned to the Namur police following his ex-wife’s complaint, Raoul Hedebouw wanted Warmoes to keep him informed hour by hour. Raoul was very, very worried . I remember very well. It happened during a meeting of the DJ (Daily Management, editor’s note) in the PTB premises in Saint-Servais. It was even me who passed the communications from Warmoes to Raoul who informed. Raoul Hedebouw knew absolutely everything.
On July 11, 2019, the PTB announced with a bang (“We will be the megaphones of the fight”, it published) that it was taking over the presidency of the Health and Equal Opportunities commission. The following October 9, Thierry Warmoes chaired the first questions committee. According to the testimony and according to the messages kept by the ex-wife Warmoes, the governing bodies of the PTB, who responded last week to DH that they were not aware, knew. They knew when they let Thierry Warmoes in 2019 become the president of this parliamentary committee where we debate measures to take once morest violence once morest women.
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