Tonight, Daphne Agten and Aster Nzeyimana will again be joined by a politician. After Melissa Depraetere, it is now Eva De Bleeker who will take her chance The Smartest Person in the World. De Bleeker recently became the chairman of Open Vld. This is where you can get to know her from.
The record for most episodes in The Smartest Person in the World is now coming very close for actress Daphne Agten. The only people who can make things difficult for her are Aster Nzeyimana, Eva De Bleeker, Tom Eerebout and Hetty Helsmoortel. The first to take her chance is Eva De Bleeker. This is where you know her from.
Eva De Bleeker
Eva De Bleeker has been the chairman of Open Vld since August 24. She succeeded Tom Ongena, who resigned on June 9 after the disappointing election results. She won the presidential elections – as could be seen on Monday in the video round of The Smartest Person in the World – by Vincent Verbeecke.
But De Bleeker has also been active in politics in recent years. After studying at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and the British University of Warwick, she started working at the consulting company LMC International in Oxford. She then also worked as an assistant in general economics at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, as a policy officer at the Professional Federation of the Food and Beverage Industry and at the European Commission. In 2006, De Bleeker was elected as a municipal councilor in Hoeilaart, where she was also alderman for sport, housing, energy, child welfare and education from 2013 to 2020. From 2016 to 2020, she was also chairman of Open Vld Women National and was elected as a non-mandator to the national party board of Open Vld.
On October 1, 2020, De Bleeker was appointed State Secretary for Budget and Consumer Protection in the De Croo I government. Later that same year, she came under controversy because she had shared the prices of the various corona vaccines on Twitter, while they were actually subject to confidentiality clauses. In 2022, De Bleeker resigned as State Secretary from the De Croo government after several mistakes were made in connection with the budget. This involved several calculation errors, which meant that De Bleeker could not stay on as State Secretary. She then returned to work at the European Commission.
Chairman Open Vld
At the beginning of this year, De Bleeker became alderman again in Hoeilaart. She was given the powers of senior policy, building management, cemeteries, integration and Flemish character. At the Flemish elections in June 2024, Eva De Bleeker came in third place in Flemish Brabant. From there – despite disappointing results from Open Vld – she was elected to the Flemish Parliament.
On election day, Tom Ongena announced his resignation as chairman, after which Eva De Bleeker and Vincent Verbeecke put themselves forward as candidates. On August 24, De Bleeker won in the second round and became party chairman of Open Vld.
