In a marked departure from his Marxist past, Brussels MP Youssef Handichi, formerly of the left-wing Worker's Party of Belgium (PTB), has joined the liberal Mouvement Reformateur (MR) for the elections on 9 June.
MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez announced Handichi's candidature during a press conference on Tuesday. The party has yet to confirm whether he will feature on the federal or regional list.
Handichi was elected to the Brussels Parliament in 2014 as a member of PTB, a left-wing party that is often described as more radical than the Socialist Party (PS). He was re-elected in 2019 with over 13,000 preferential votes, one of the city's top-four personal scores.
MR is the leading party for centrist voters in French-speaking Belgium but has shifted to the right under Bouchez's leadership style, promoting a free market economic model with conservative social values.
"From the outside, it looks like a big change, but from the inside, it's quite logical," the politician said about his ideological shift.
The 47-year-old worked as a STIB union delegate before entering into politics. He views MR, the French-speaking liberals, as a party that offers "swift solutions" to issues facing workers, such as purchasing power and the cost of living crisis. "There is a social emergency. People need to work more. Young people are a priority too," he said.
"MR has real solutions for workers," echoed Bouchez at the press conference. "We hope other Walloons and Brusseleers will follow in Youssef Handichi’s footsteps in June."
Left to right
In the past, Bouchez has argued for a cordon sanitaire – a political boycott – to be extended from the far-right to the PTB, but this notion appears to have been sidelined after accepting a former party member.
MR hopes that by nabbing a figure who performed so well in 2019, the party can hold onto its seats and capitalise on Handichi's strong voter base. However, it remains to be seen whether supporters will stay faithful to a socialist-turned-liberal.
Handichi has sat in Parliament as an independent MP since 4 February due to falling out with his former party. He had announced his departure from politics several months previously, stating that politics "is a life too far from reality".
Nevertheless, his name will appear on ballots in June, although MR is holding off on determining which one so far. In addition, ambiguity surrounds how the politician plans to deal with more contentious themes where his past opinions differ strongly from MR's party line.
For instance, during the press conference, Handichi evaded questions relating to religious signs, a debate that has become progressively more divisive in Belgium. MR is staunchly against the wearing of headscarves and other religious items in public and wishes to uphold a policy of strict neutrality at all costs. Bouchez has stressed that "the MR programme will not change by one millimetre".
