How can someone be declared invalid in Belgium… while practising as a lawyer in Morocco? This is the shocking case revealed by La Dernière Heure. A woman, allegedly domiciled in Brussels and unfit for work since 2016, was in fact working as a lawyer for over 20 years in Morocco. Registered with the bar since 2003, she is said to lead a “very comfortable” life there, according to the NIHDI.
Georges-Louis Bouchez, President of the MR, reacted immediately during the plenary session in the Chamber: "I want to bring this to light to show that our social system is a sieve. Abuses are far more numerous than one might imagine." For the MR, this case is not an isolated incident but rather the symptom of a failing system, lacking effective checks, where in 2025 it is still possible to divert public money without consequence.
The MR has been leading this fight against social fraud for years. But too often, the left looks the other way. Worse still: it accuses those who expose these abuses of exaggerating or "stigmatising". The facts prove them wrong. "This is not a caricature. These are millions of euros disappearing every year through this kind of fraud. And meanwhile, those who work, those who follow the rules, pay the price," denounces Georges-Louis Bouchez.
The MR does not stop at observations. It proposes concrete and firm solutions: a register of social benefits to automatically cross-check data between administrations; international agreements conditional on reliable information exchange on benefit recipients; enhanced, modernised real-time checks; and exemplary sanctions against fraudsters.
These measures are part of the federal government agreement, which foresees a determined fight against social benefit fraud and undeclared work. For the MR, protecting solidarity starts with justice. Protecting those who truly need help means relentlessly tracking down those who abuse the system.
For at its core, the question is simple: should we keep turning a blind eye? Or should we finally have the political courage to act? At the MR, we have made our choice. We will act.