Georges-Louis Bouchez in Het Laatste Nieuws: “My father always works and never gives up”

12 life questions. On dreams, childhood, chance, hardship, simple things, saying sorry, the toughest moments, love, physicality and life after death. Georges-Louis Bouchez spoke openly to Het Laatste Nieuws. Not a political interview this time, but a conversation about life. The answer to one question can already be read here. Is there someone who has shaped your life? My father, because of his way of working and the fact that he never gave up. My father was an engineer by training, but he graduated during the oil crisis, when there was no work for engineers, so he opened a shop. At first things went well, but with the arrival of Van den Borre and Krëfel, it became harder. The only thing he was still called for were the small jobs others didn't want to do. I often saw my father go to bed without knowing how he would pay the bills the next morning. So he laid out gardens, installed alarms, cleared rubble, renovated bathrooms and built kitchens, all to make ends meet. I'm not saying everyone has to be like my father. But before knocking on the state's door, people should at least ask themselves: have I really done everything myself? My father taught me a lot by living this way. I haven't told him this very clearly yet, that's not how we do things, but he knows it anyway. He doesn't like it when I talk about him in interviews, it touches his pride, but I do it so people understand where my convictions come from. I'm not the son of a rich heir, I'm the son of a small self-employed shopkeeper from Quaregnon. I started with nothing, and that's why I feel far more entitled than many other politicians to speak about these things. I won't name names, but that's often been the problem at Open Vld and the MR: those who made the biggest statements about money and work were often the ones who never faced hardship on that front themselves.