Conner Rousseau has been re-elected president of the Flemish socialist party, Vooruit, with 94% of the votes. He will immediately take back the leadership from Melissa Depraetere.
Rousseau resigned as leader of the party last year, following controversy surrounding racist and sexist comments he made during a night out in September. Following his stepping down, Melissa Depraetere took over as interim leader in November.
However, Rousseau's good election result (securing nearly 76,000 preferential votes, despite being at the bottom of Vooruit's list for East-Flanders) made it clear that he would soon be back at the head of the party. Immediately after Depraetere announced that she would not be a candidate to become party leader again, Rousseau announced that he would be in the running again. He was the only candidate.
The election result will be confirmed at the party congress on 31 August in Ghent, but Rousseau is taking over the leadership of the party right away. Together with Depraetere, he has also been leading the negotiating teams in the talks to form both the Flemish and the Federal Government.
