Michel Demaret

Last updated

Michel Demaret
Born(1940-01-18)18 January 1940
Uccle
Died9 November 2000(2000-11-09) (aged 60)
Namur
NationalityBelgian
Occupationpolitician

Michel Demaret (18 January 1940 - 9 November 2000) was a Belgian politician.

Contents

Originally a club bouncer of humble origin from the Marolles neighbourhood, his general attitude and manner of speech made him a target for jokes, but also for popularity among many electors and TV viewers, particularly after the broadcasting of two documentaries about him, at that time still a low level employee at the Retirement Office, by Fait Divers , a famous Belgian television magazine, realized in 1971 and 1972 by Jean-Jacques Péché and Pierre Manuel, Les Fonctionnaires (the Public Servants) and Week-end ou la qualité de la vie (Week end or quality of life). The magazines have been put on the air a lot of times in the next quarter of a century by the Belgian TV, always with a high success. Another documentary, Tel qu'en lui-même enfin (Finally as himself) was made in 1997 by the Strip Tease magazine, filmed at the peak of Demaret's political career. [1]

After the first documentaries, he was recruited by the former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants for his Belgian Christian Social Party. He became alderman for the Registry Offices (1976–1982), for Registry Offices, Urbanism and Personnel (1982–1988) and for Public Works and Communal Properties (1988–1994), he was also briefly interim burgomaster of Brussels (from 20 July 1993 till 24 March 1994) after the death of Hervé Brouhon. He was the only Christian Social burgomaster in the city's political history, as his mentor Vanden Boeynants was under judicial enquiry each time he tried to rise to this function. He was president of the social housing society Le Foyer laekenois from 1978, a function that made it possible for him to enlarge his clientelist practices. He was also a member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (from 12 July 1989 till 1999). [2]

Controversy

A corpulent man, Michel Demaret was popularly known as Dikke Mich (Fat Mike in Dutch), or Monsieur 10% (Mister 10% in French), for his reputation of taking 10% for each contract as alderman for Public Works.

This dubious reputation, also the trading mark of his political godfather Paul Vanden Boeynants, was confirmed fourteen years after his death by a court, but the contractors, his widow Francine Vereecken, his daughter and his son-in-law benefited from the prescription for corruption and whitewashing hitherto attested facts for amounts over 2.5 million euro. At the trial, his stepson said that "In the early 1990s he entrusted me with envelopes. I had to hide them in my small supermarket. Once I counted the content, there were more than 100 million Belgian francs (2.5 million euro). Michel Demaret came back to fetch them.". [3] A few hours before his sudden death, in September 2000, he was controlled in a train from Zürich, the customs officers saw huge banknotes wads sticking out from his pockets, he was slightly drunk and an amount of more than 110,000 euro was found in his suitcase. 30,000 euro were seized and he was notified that he would have to prove that this money had a licit origin to get it back. [4] [5] [6]

Quotes

Sources

  1. ↑ Lamensch, Michelle (22 January 1994). "Michel Demaret en "Faits Divers"" (in French). Brussels: Le Soir . Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  2. ↑ Lamensch, Michelle (24 April 1993). "Michel Demaret, bourgmestre faisant fonction" (in French). Brussels: Le Soir . Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  3. ↑ French : Au début des années 90, il me confiait des enveloppes. Je devais les cacher dans une valise dans ma supérette. Un jour j’ai compté ce qu’il y avait dedans : 100 millions de francs. Michel Demaret est revenu les chercher
  4. ↑ "Michel Demaret avait bien été corrompu..." (in French). Brussels: La Libre Belgique. 26 June 2008. Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  5. 1 2 Robert, François (6 August 2008). ""Dikke Mich" de long en large" (in French). Brussels: Le Soir . Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  6. ↑ He was also sometimes called Monsieur 20%, according to Borloo, Jean-Louis (26 June 2008). "Pas de sanction pour la corruption" (in French). Brussels: Le Soir . Retrieved 19 November 2009.
  7. ↑ French : eh ben maintenant, c’est une autre qui est la plus vieille, cf. Verstraeten, Guy (15 January 2008). "Bruxelles et ses joyaux menacés" (in French). Brussels: Le Soir . Retrieved 19 November 2009.
Political offices
Preceded by Mayor of Brussels
1993-1994		Succeeded by

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Édith Piaf</span> French singer (1915-1963)

Édith Piaf was a French singer, lyricist and actress. Noted as France's national chanteuse, she was one of the country's most widely known international stars.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Salvatore Adamo</span> Italian musician

Salvatore Adamo is a Belgian-Italian musician, singer and composer, who is known for his romantic ballads. Adamo was born in Comiso, Sicily, Italy, and has lived in Belgium since the age of three, which is why he has dual citizenship.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Paul Vanden Boeynants</span> Belgian politician

Paul Emile François Henri Vanden Boeynants was a Belgian politician. He served as the prime minister of Belgium for two brief periods.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean-Philippe Toussaint</span>

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a Belgian novelist, photographer and filmmaker. His books have been translated into more than twenty languages and he has had his photographs displayed in Brussels and Japan. Toussaint won the Prix Médicis in 2005 for his novel Fuir, second volume of the « Cycle of Marie », a four-tome chronicle published over ten years and displaying the separation of Marie and her lover. His 2009 novel La Vérité sur Marie, third volume of the cycle, won the Prix Décembre.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Catholic Church in Belgium</span>

The Catholic Church in Belgium, part of the global Catholic Church in Belgium, is under the spiritual leadership of the Pope, the curia in Rome and the Episcopal Conference of Bishops.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Raymond Rouleau</span> Belgian actor

Raymond Rouleau was a Belgian actor and film director. He appeared in more than 40 films between 1928 and 1979. He also directed 22 films between 1932 and 1981. Rouleau studied at the Royal Conservatory of Brussels, where he met Tania Balachova. They emigrated to Paris together and collaborated with a variety of directors at the cutting edge of French theatre, including Charles Dullin and Gaston Baty. They married in France and separated in 1940. He subsequently married the actress Françoise Lugagne.

The Union des progressistes juifs de Belgique is a Belgian Jewish organization set up in 1939 as Solidarité juive by antifascist Jews in Belgium, becoming in 1946 Solidarité juive, aide aux victimes de l'oppresseur nazi. It took on its present name in 1969.

Toni Musulin is a French man of Serb and Croat origin, and a former security van driver for the Loomis security firm. He is known for having stolen €11.6 million from the Banque de France while on duty.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nicolas Ancion</span> Belgian writer

Nicolas Ancion is a Belgian writer born in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, in 1971. His parents were professional puppeteers.

Georges Ugeux is a dual citizen of Belgium, his native country, and the United States, and was Group Executive Vice President of the New York Stock Exchange from 1996 to 2003. His banking career began in the 1970s in Europe, and he is currently the CEO of Galileo Global Advisors, a New York-based investment bank catering to emerging markets. He is a notable member of the Belgian diaspora, due to his influence in the world of international finance. He is a frequent public speaker and an op-ed contributor to the Huffington Post.

The Prix Victor-Rossel is a literary award in Belgium that was first awarded in 1938. The award was created by three people associated with the newspaper Le Soir: the owner Marie-Thérèse Rossel, the manager Lucien Fuss and the editor-in-chief, Charles Breisdorff.

Isabelle Spaak is a Belgian writer living in Paris.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Jean de Létraz</span>

Jean de Létraz, pen name of Jean Félix Deletraz, was a French playwright, spécialising in vaudeville, who authored nearly 118 plays, among which the most famous is Bichon written in 1935.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2016 stabbing of Charleroi police officers</span> Terrorist attack in Charleroi, Belgium

On 6 August 2016, a man attacked two policewomen with a machete in Charleroi, Belgium, before being shot dead by another police officer.

Brussels Sound Revolution was a Belgian new beat band who had a novelty song hit in their home country with the 45 tours single Qui...? (1989), which featured samples of the speech Belgian former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants gave after he had been kidnapped by the gang of Patrick Haemers that year.

"Qui…?" is a 1989 Belgian novelty song hit by the new beat band Brussels Sound Revolution. It features samples of the speech Belgian former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants gave after he had been kidnapped by the gang of Patrick Haemers that same year. It was a hit on both sides of the Belgian language border. In Flanders, Belgium it reached the 28th place in the Radio 2 hitparade at the time for one week.

Etienne Ugeux was a Belgian journalist.

Humanist Democratic Centre was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) which had been the country's governing party for much of the post-war period. It continued to be called the Christian Social Party until 2002 when it was renamed the Humanist Democratic Centre. It was refounded as Les Engagés in 2022.

Events in the year 2022 in Belgium.

This page is based on this Wikipedia article
Text is available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 license; additional terms may apply.
Images, videos and audio are available under their respective licenses.