“My role as mayor has so far enabled me to meet a lot of people from all Kraainem’s neighborhoods, and I’m already looking forward to meeting even more of them during this legislature!

You learn a lot from talking to people, and their suggestions are always worth listening to. The many encounters with the residents always give me the energy to continue working for the beautiful municipality of Kraainem.”

 

Mayor of the municipality of Kraainem

________

  • In charge of public order, security, population, civil status, public health, cemeteries and finance
  • President of the Police College of the WOKRA zone, of the College of Burgomasters and Aldermen
  • Vice-President of UBCNA (Union Belge Contre les Nuisances Aériennes)
  • Director (and former CEO) of B Plus ASBL.

Who is Bertrand?

__________

Born in Brussels in 1960, Bertrand Waucquez spent his youth in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, with his parents, sister Ariane and brother Jean. Since 2000, he has lived in Kraainem.

As a child, he was very active in scouting and was always interested in technology (dismantling cars, etc.).

  • Diplomas: mechanical civil engineer at Louvain-la-Neuve and Master of Engineering at the University of Tokyo.
  • Military service in Zeebrugge
  • Professional assignment in Tokyo for several years
  • 15 years with a port company in Antwerp (logistics and IT)
  • 10 years as an independent consultant (energy sector)
  • From 2016, energy advisor for the Confédération de la Construction (with a focus on energy transition, geothermal energy and indoor air quality).
  • Since 2019: Mayor of Kraainem

Mayor’s agenda

1x per week: College of burgomasters and aldermen

1x a month: Town Council (open to the public)

1x a month: CPAS Council (open to the public)

Ad hoc: crisis management meetings (Corona, Ukraine, etc.)

 

1x a month: various commissions open to the public
(administrative management, mobility, finance, assets,
well-being, etc.)

1x a month: fire department zone council

2x a month: police college

1x a month: Mobility Committee

Ad hoc: communal consultation committee / CPAS.

Ad hoc: regular consultation with the mayors of other municipalities with facilities.

Not forgetting: conversations with citizens and departments, follow-up on files, preparation of meetings, visits to worksites in the commune…

The first steps in politics …

Bertrand Waucquez has always been a fervent supporter of Belgium. He is the former Chairman of the Executive Committee of B-Plus, a lobby group against the break-up of Belgium, whose slogan is: “Alone we go faster, together we go further”.

Link to B-Plus

“Rudy Aernoudt’s pragmatic approach and the Belgian list perfectly matched his state of mind.”

Lorsque Rudy Aernoudt, professeur à l’Université de Gand et homme politique libéral bien connu, actif en Flandre, à Bruxelles et en Wallonie, a – en tant que coprésident du Parti Populaire nouvellement fondé – demandé à Bertrand Waucquez en 2010 de participer aux élections fédérales sur une liste qui serait active en Flandre, à Bruxelles et en Wallonie (en tant que seule liste dans toute la Belgique), Bertrand a accepté. Tant l’approche pragmatique de Rudy Aernoudt que la liste belge correspondaient tout à fait à sa mentalité : un parti présent dans toute la Belgique, quel beau signal. Cependant, il est vite apparu que cette initiative comportait des lacunes : finalement, seules les listes électorales à Bruxelles et en Wallonie ont été déposées, Rudy Aernoudt a été écarté par l’autre président en tant que coprésident, et le président restant voulait faire du Parti Populaire l’équivalent de la N-VA mais en Wallonie et à Bruxelles.

Bertrand Waucquez prend alors rapidement ses distances avec le Parti Populaire (qui a commencé à s’écarter complètement de ses objectifs initiaux) et rend sa carte de parti. Cette période très courte, de quelques mois lui a donné goût de la politique.

LIEN Article – Est-ce que Bertrand Waucquez est d’extrême droite comme le prétend l’opposition ?

 

UBCNA (Union Belge Contre les Nuisances Aériennes)

Since 2014, Bertrand Waucquez has been vice-president of UBCNA (Union Belge Contre les Nuisances Aériennes) and actively participates in debates and forums aimed at reducing aircraft noise around Zaventem.

LINK to UBCNA – BUTV

Involvement at local level: Kraainem-unie, a citizens’ movement

  • After regular meetings in 2011-2012 with retired general José Michaux, who in 2010 created a facebook group “José Michaux Citoyens” to denounce the fact that politics in Kraainem was mainly focused on the language issue rather than on good management of the municipality (with all its consequences), Bertrand Waucquez, along with 4 other citizens, took the bull by the horns and decided it was time for him to take an active part in politics.
  • Posting and denouncing political problems on Facebook is one thing, but if you want to change things in politics, you have to get involved in politics yourself. This was Bertrand’s state of mind at the time, and with a group of enthusiastic Kraainemois citizens,the independent bilingual citizen movement Kraainem-Unie was created in June 2012, with no ties to any political party (founders: José Michaux, Marie-France Constant, Carel Edwards, Peggy Cortois, Bertrand Waucquez).
  • In the October 2012 elections, 20% of Kraainem’s inhabitants gave their vote to Kraainem-Unie (which brought 4 local councillors: Bertrand Waucquez, Marie-France Constant, Johan Forton and Carel Edwards). From 2012 to 2018, a constructive opposition was led by these 4 councillors, and transparently communicated to citizens through the Kraainem-Unie newspaper ‘den Tournesol Déchainé’ later renamed ‘Kraainem-Unie News’.
  • In the 2018 elections, Kraainem-Unie won 32.5% of the vote, making it the largest party on the local council (8 elected to the local council and 3 elected to the CPAS). Together with “Pro-Kraainem”, Kraainem-Unie has formed the majority on Kraainem’s town council since 2019, and Bertrand Waucquez has been appointed mayor.

LINK to our team

He’s also an avid sailor, plays tennis with his friends and enjoys a good chat…

 

Languages

Bertrand Waucquez was raised in French, worked for many years in Flanders and is perfectly bilingual. He is also fluent in English, Spanish, German, Japanese, basic Chinese and has some notions of Arabic. And that’s handy in a town with so many nationalities! Right from the start of the war in Ukraine, he began learning the rudiments of Ukrainian.

What does Bertrand do outside politics?

In addition to local politics, it is active in the field of energy transition, in cooperation with, for example, Ghent University.

LINK to www.myclimatecontribution.org

Bertrand Waucquez holds 1 paid office as Mayor. He also sits on a number of boards of directors, again on a pro bono basis.

LINK to Cumuleo

He’s also an avid sailor, plays tennis with friends and enjoys a good chat.