It’s fair game: to optimise their chances of winning elections, Belgian political parties are enlisting the services of “celebrities”. In the little game of vote-catchers, Georges-Louis Bouchez’s Reform Movement won the gold watch last June with the former Miss Belgium Julie Taton. Zero political experience, but easy to get along with and disarming cheekiness. The one who made her name mainly in TV and radio hosting thus became a member of parliament by winning more than 23,000 preferential votes in Hainaut, during the legislative elections of 9 June.
You don’t change a winning team. Georges-Louis Bouchez has once again given himself up to Julie Taton as his squire to drive the socialists out of Mons, during the local elections on 13 October. The duo aims to unseat the PS mayor of the city, Nicolas Martin, the man who succeeded the indestructible Elio Di Rupo, who for his part moved from the Walloon minister-presidency to the European Parliament in the last election.
But there is a problem. To compete at the local level in Belgium, you must have your main residence in the municipality you intend to lead. However, Julie Taton, second on the Mons en mieux (pro-MR) list, would not meet this condition.
“Maneuvers”, “zealous controls”
According to the police, who issued a negative report after three visits to her apartment in Mons, Julie Taton does not reside in Mons, although a label with her name on it is present on the mailbox.
The atmosphere immediately became heated. Liberal Georges-Louis Bouchez denounced “manoeuvres” and “zealous controls”. He filed a criminal complaint for “disclosure of private information”.
Opposite, the socialist mayor Nicolas Martin responds: “The problem is not the leak of information but rather the aborted attempt at home fraud of which the deputies Georges-Louis Bouchez and Julie Taton were guilty,” he says.
The former Miss was recruited by Georges-Louis Bouchez, the head of the French-speaking liberals. © PHOTO: Instagram/@julietaton_official
Nicolas Martin adds that Georges-Louis Bouchez himself no longer lives in Mons, and that the priority target of his accusations should have been Bouchez, not Taton: “If our objective had been to denounce the multiple irregularities of the MR candidates in Mons, our priority target would not have been Julie Taton but rather Georges-Louis Bouchez himself.” Furious, Bouchez, who is a young father, retorts in the columns of Evening that the best proof of his presence in the city is “that you can’t change the crib like that.”
The standoff is not abating. On the contrary. Georges-Louis Bouchez met with the press on Tuesday afternoon to confirm that Julie Taton is still in second position on the municipal list despite the refusal of domiciliation by the Mons police. An appeal has been filed with the Ministry of the Interior, an appeal that is supposed to make the presence of the former Miss Belgium 2003 on the electoral lists legal.
For the MR president, the police only came to the federal MP’s home in Mons once, not three times, without leaving a notice. And he declared: “I was shocked that people could not believe that we were leaving Lasne (Julie Taton’s residence before she entered politics, editor’s note) to come and live in Mons. If I become mayor, I will do everything so that people do not think that it is impossible to go from Walloon Brabant to Hainaut.”
A story of “barakis”
Here we are. For her political opponents, Julie Taton is not credible in the city of Mons because of the circle she frequents and her region of origin. Lasne is one of the richest municipalities in Belgium. With an average income of 29,026 euros per inhabitant, it is even the richest in Wallonia. Last June, a report broadcast by RTL-TVI showed Julie Taton evolving in a more than affluent universe, chirping around the swimming pool in the manner of the jet set. A portrait that does not correspond well to the image of Mons, a city that has a good record, but to which a popular dimension still clings, with its good and bad sides.
Georges-Louis Bouchez thus denounced the presence of alcohol and drugs in the street, scourges that the PS is trying to hide. “I will be the mayor who will restore Mons. Restore security, cleanliness, good management,” he posted on X (the former Twitter) accompanying the statement with a shocking image showing a man in an alcoholic coma, his face pressed against the Mons pavement.
The liberal added that he no longer wants “barakis” in Mons. The term “baraki” is pejorative in Belgium and condescendingly refers to people perceived as vulgar or from a working-class background, lacking restraint and civility. This statement has caused controversy, pitting those who denounce a lie aimed at stigmatizing a less privileged class of the population against others who want to put an end to the “laxity” of a PS supposedly maintaining chaos in order to keep power.
A caricature of politics
This caricature of politics has been setting the tone for several weeks for the local elections that Georges-Louis Bouchez’s Reform Movement intends to dominate by riding on its victory in the legislative elections of June 9. Even if it means torpedoing the ongoing negotiations for the formation of the next federal government? That is the question…
On 22 August, the formateur Bart De Wever threw in the towel due to the deep differences caused during the inter-party negotiations by his proposals for tax reform and the announcement of new taxes. The MR’s blockage led to failure. Hence the rumour maintained by his opponents: Georges-Louis Bouchez will not give his blessing to such a programme until the municipal elections have taken place. The MR has promised its voters that it will not accept new taxes. If it eats its word (too early), it will pay dearly at the ballot box on 13 October.
Georges-Louis Bouchez has since tried to calm things down. On the Flemish private channel VTM, he declared that he “still has absolute confidence in Bart De Wever” and “is convinced that (the Flemish nationalist) must become the next Prime Minister of an Arizona coalition”. He promised to ensure that the federal negotiations lead to the formation of a government before the local elections.
