Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
Oscar Siewentjens is 26 years old and is the youngest committee chairman ever in the Belgian House of Representatives, and now he also has another title, which is the youngest leader of a political party group in parliament ever, the Flemish Socialist "Vorout".
Oscar Siewentjens (26) will be the most important Flemish Socialist in the House of Representatives in the coming period, according to what the Belgian daily newspaper Nieuwsblad published on its website, adding
Siewentjens took the title from a colleague in the party. It was Melissa Depraterre - now Deputy Prime Minister in the Flemish government - who entered the House of Representatives as a beginner in 2019 and was immediately appointed leader of the group by her party. She was 27 years old at the time. Never before has anyone become party leader at such a young age.
But here is political history repeating itself after nearly five years. Siewentjens was also recently elected to the House of Representatives. Now that the party's parliamentary group leader Joris Vandenbroucke is a member of the Ghent city council and wants to focus fully on this work, Vouraut had to look for a new group leader. The choice fell on Oscar Siewentjens, 26. However, the Antwerp resident has not been politically active for long. Despite growing up in a socialist family in the Kempen district - his mother Inga Verhart was a member of parliament - he only became interested in the Weststraat district after the 2019 elections. As the leader of the Socialist Youth, he quickly appeared on the radar of the party leadership. Things then continued to move very quickly. Oscar, a civil engineer, was immediately allowed to chair the energy committee. Six months later he became the group leader. Meanwhile, Oscar - a huge Anderlecht fan - was also elected to the city council. “One of my strengths is that I am not easily influenced,” said Oscar. “I am only influenced by footballers,” said the Socialist Oscar. However, he will have to face this challenge in the coming years. The Vorwat party did not do very well in the recent elections, and the combined opposition – the Walloon Socialist Party, the Green Party and the Flemish Workers’ Party – will not hesitate to shoot at the Flemish Socialists. “I took part in the trade union demonstration at the beginning of this year and felt it was important to stand up for the people,” said Oscar. “It is important to have Socialists in government.” “Shouting from the sidelines does not help,” said Sintjens.