Who I am
My role as mayor has allowed me to meet many citizens from all the districts of Kraainem and I am already looking forward to meeting even more during this legislature! I learn a lot from talking to people and their suggestions are always worth listening to. The numerous meetings with the citizens always give me the energy to continue to work for the beautiful commune of Kraainem.
Mayor of the commune of Kraainem
In charge of public order, security, population, civil status, public health, cemeteries and finance
President of the Police College WOKRA and of the College of Mayor and Aldermen
Vice-president of UBCNA (Union Belge Contre les Nuisances Aériennes)
Administrator (and former CEO) of B Plus ASBL.
Who is Bertrand?
Born in 1960 in Brussels, Bertrand Waucquez spent his youth in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, 50 metres from Kraainem, with his parents, his sister and his brother. Since 2000, he has lived in Kraainem with his wife Julie Verstraete.
– Diplomas : civil (mechanical) engineer (training in Louvain-la-Neuve) and Master of Engineering at the University of Tokyo
– Military service in Zeebrugge
– Professional mission in Tokyo for a few years
– 15 years for a company in the port of Antwerp (logistics and IT)
– 10 years in the energy sector as an independent consultant
– Since 2016 as an energy consultant at the Confederation of Construction (with a focus on energy transition, geothermal energy and indoor air quality)
– Since 2018 : mayor of Kraainem
The first steps in politics ...
Bertrand Waucquez has always been a strong supporter of Belgium. He is the former chairman of the executive committee, currently still a director, of B-Plus, a pressure group against the splitting up of Belgium, whose slogan is: “Alone we go faster, together we go further”.
Rudy Aernoudt's pragmatic approach and the Belgian list matched his mindset perfectly.
When Rudy Aernoudt, professor at Ghent University and well-known liberal politician, active in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia, and co-chairman of the newly founded Parti Populaire, asked Bertrand Waucquez in 2010, to participate in the federal elections on a list that would be active in Flanders, Brussels and Wallonia (as the only list in the whole of Belgium), Bertrand agreed. Both Rudy Aernoudt’s pragmatic approach and the Belgian list were very much in line with his mentality: a standing party in the whole of Belgium, what a nice signal. However, it soon became apparent that this initiative had its shortcomings: in the end, only electoral lists in Brussels and Wallonia were submitted, Rudy Aernoudt was dismissed by the other chairman as co-chairman, and the remaining chairman wanted to make the Parti Populaire the equivalent of the NVA but in Wallonia and Brussels.
Bertrand Waucquez then quickly distanced himself from the Parti Populaire (which had started to deviate completely from its initial objectives) and handed in his party card. It was a very short period, but in the meantime he had developed a passion for politics.
L’UBCNA (Union Belge Contre les Nuisances Aériennes)
Local involvement: Kraainem-unie, a citizen movement
– After regular meetings in 2011-2012 with José Michaux, a retired Kraainem Major General, who in 2010 created a facebook group “José Michaux Citoyen” to denounce the fact that politics in Kraainem was mainly focused on the language issue rather than on the good management of the municipality (with all its consequences). Bertrand Waucquez, together with 4 other citizens, took the bull by the horns and decided that it was time for him to actively participate in politics.
– Posting and denouncing political problems on Facebook is one thing, but if you want to actively change things, you have to get involved in politics yourself. This was Bertrand’s state of mind at the time and together with a group of enthusiastic Kraainem citizens, the independent bilingual citizen movement Kraainem-Unie was created in June 2012, without any link to a political party (founders: José Michaux, Marie-France Constant, Carel Edwards, Peggy Cortois, Bertrand Waucquez).
– During the elections of October 2012, 20% of the inhabitants of Kraainem 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 communicated in a transparent way to the citizens through the Kraainem-Unie newspaper ‘den Tournesol Déchainé’ later renamed ‘Kraainem-Unie News’. In October 2018, 32.5% of Kraainemois put their trust in Kraainem-Unie, thus becoming the first party in Kraainem (8 municipal councillors and 3 CPAS councillors).
A united team
– Together with the bilingual “Burgomaster’s List”, now called “Pro-Kraainem”, Kraainem-Unie forms since 2019 the majority in the Kraainem local council and Bertrand Waucquez is appointed Mayor.
– The majority team of kraainem Unie consists of Bertrand Waucquez, alderman Marie-France Constant, alderman Johan Forton, Carel Edwards, Vinciane De Meutter-Cardinael, André Ivanszky, Nathalie Woitrin, Anja Vermeulen (8 Kraainem-Unie); and also 4 councillors from Pro-Kraainem: Olivier Joris, the president of the local council Luc Timmermans, Guillaume von Wintersdorff and Carine Pin. At the CPAS, Kraainem-Unie has 3 of the 9 seats (permanent board member Damien Filippi, Ingrid Leyman, Colette Storms), Pro-Kraainem 1 (Gilbert Theunis).
Not forgetting the many active members of Kraainem-Unie without whom this citizen movement would not exist!
Bertrand Waucquez holds 1 paid position as mayor. He also sits on a number of boards, always on a voluntary basis.
Belgique
He is also a big fan of sailing, plays tennis with his friends and enjoys a good chat ...
Languages
– Bertrand Waucquez was brought up in French, worked for a long time in Flanders and is perfectly bilingual. He is also fluent in English, Spanish, German, Japanese, basic Chinese and has some knowledge of Arabic. And that’s handy in a commune with so many nationalities! As soon as the war in Ukraine started, he started to learn some basic Ukrainian.
What keeps Bertrand busy outside politics?
Agenda as mayor
– 1x per week: College of Mayor and Aldermen
– 1x per month: Municipal Council (open to the public)
– 1x per month: OCMW Council (open to the public)
– Ad hoc : crisis meetings (Corona, Ukraine, …)
– 1x per month: various committees (administrative management, mobility, finance, heritage, welfare) (open to the public)
– 1x per month: Fire Brigade Council
– 2x per month: police college
– 1x per month: traffic committee
– Ad hoc: municipal / OCMW consultation committee
– Ad hoc: regular consultation with the mayors of the other municipalities with facilities
– Not forgetting: conversations with citizens and the administration, follow-up of files, preparation of meetings, visits to construction sites in the commune, ….”