Proclaimed in 1990 by the United Nations General Assembly (UN), the International Day of Older Persons, celebrated every 1 October, recognises the contribution of older people to society. It also aims to raise public and governmental awareness of the challenges of ageing (isolation, health, ageism…) and to promote respect for their rights.
The main objectives for 2026 are:
Collective responsibility: highlighting the duty of society as a whole to provide an environment conducive to ageing well.
Fundamental pillars: resting on decent living conditions, lasting local services and the active involvement of older people in collective decisions.
As part of this international day, the Seniors MR wish to reaffirm their priorities: safeguarding older people's purchasing power, strengthening their safety and better protecting them against scams, promoting mobility and combating isolation, and bringing together all the conditions needed to age well, whether at home or in residential care.
Well-being, living well, ageing well must be the guiding principles for a better quality of life.
The assessment of ageing in Wallonia must enable decision-makers to take demographic change into account. From the federal to the municipal level, every level of government must factor this change into its decisions, and several advances already point in this direction:
- at federal level, pension reform, the extension of flexi-jobs and the recognition of informal carers;
- at regional level, support for informal carers, the development of adapted housing and administrative simplification;
- at the level of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, which has just unanimously adopted a resolution asking the government to better take older people into account when designing and implementing its policies;
- at municipal level, strengthening security and improving accessibility.
All these decisions have a direct impact on the lives of our elderly.
For the Seniors MR, better assessing the impact of political decisions on the quality of life of older people is an absolute priority.
Chantal BERTOUILLE
President of Seniors MR