He is “The candidate who scares the traditional parties », headlined the front page of the Brussels newspaper on September 28 The last hour. On October 13, the day of the municipal elections (called “communal”) in Belgium, Fouad Ahidar hopes in any case to celebrate his 51st birthday at the same time as his success in these elections. His formation, the Fouad Ahidar Team, will appear in a dozen of the nineteen municipalities that make up the Brussels-Capital region and aims to influence the composition of the future majorities. The former social worker now sees further: the confusing political situation resulting from the June 9 vote has transformed him, it is true, into a possible arbiter for the constitution of a regional government.
“In the eyes of some, I was an Islamist; here I am, a coach [du gouvernement régional] ! »this smiling, talkative and impulsive colossus, very popular in the north of the region, particularly among the large Arab-Muslim community, recently joked. Meeting the world A few days ago he was even thinking about a possible ministerial portfolio: housing, social issues, cleanliness and the fight against noise pollution are his favorite topics, he explained. Like the fight against bullying, a phenomenon that he says he suffered for twelve years when he was young.
His speech goes beyond communities of foreign origin: Fouad Ahidar is now more popular than many left-wing elected officials, including the region’s outgoing president, the French-speaking socialist Rudi Vervoort. On June 9, his “team”, to everyone’s surprise, won three seats of deputies out of the 17 guaranteed to the Flemish minority in the regional Parliament of Brussels-Capital, where French speakers have 72 elected positions. In this bilingual region, a majority must emerge from both the Dutch and French-speaking sides for the formation of the government and the appointment of a minister president. Generally complex, this negotiation seems to have become almost impossible given the dispersion of representation between six Flemish parties. The one who was, for five years, vice president of the regional assembly, however, believed himself capable of solving the equation but, on Friday, October 4, he announced that he was putting “on pause” negotiations with other parties.
Sensual reputation
A practicing Muslim, former advisor to a Flemish nationalist minister, who joined the Flemish Socialist Party before being excluded, in 2022, for his refusal to condemn the ritual sacrifice of animals, the perfectly bilingual elected official, it is true, has a sulphurous reputation . fueled by his speech described as communal by his adversaries, his contacts with a radical preacher from Molenbeek, his defense of the use of the veil, even for those in positions of authority, or the statements he made in October 2023 about Hamas terrorist attacks. TO “small answer” to politics “genocidal” carried out for seventy-five years by Israel towards the Palestinians, he said, before apologizing a few days later and indicating that “any death is too many”.
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