“It is to Wellin that we travel at this year's end to meet Benoît Closson, who is beginning his second consecutive term as mayor. Elected to the Wellin municipal council as far back as 2000, he remains committed to his municipality's prosperity and to rigorous, effective local governance.”
You were elected mayor of your municipality for the second consecutive term, yet you have been involved in politics for over twenty years. From opposition to alderman before taking on the mayoral sash, all while running a law firm in Wellin for nearly thirty years. That shows remarkable organisation. Can you take us through the stages of your political and professional career?
After graduating in law in 1993, I began my career at the Namur Bar, where I completed my three-year training. Those years were very enriching: Namur is a beautiful city and I formed friendships there that I still cherish today. But I soon felt the need to return to what had always driven me: rural life, quality of life and closeness to people.
So I returned to Wellin, my true home municipality, where I set up my law firm. Over nearly thirty years, it has grown and now operates on a solid footing. Practising as a lawyer remains a genuine passion for me: it is a demanding, varied and deeply human profession, devoted to defending others. This activity, alongside my role as mayor, requires strict organisation, sometimes down to the minute, but I can rely on an efficient and supportive team, which allows me to combine professional and political commitments.
My involvement in local politics began in 2000, when the then mayor, the late Robert Dermience, approached me to strengthen his list. I was elected right from that first experience, in opposition. Looking back, starting out in opposition was a particularly formative school: it teaches you to understand the issues, analyse, propose… while developing a critical yet constructive outlook.
In 2006 I joined the municipal executive as First Alderman for two years, before becoming chairman of the CPAS for four years. In 2012, despite my list achieving the best electoral score and my personal score being the best among all candidates, a coalition of two other lists sent me back into opposition. This decision was hard for many citizens to understand, but it is the democratic rule of the majority. That period nonetheless allowed me to lead a strong, determined but always constructive opposition, which strengthened our team's credibility and cohesion.
In 2018 and again in 2024, our open list Wellin Dem@in won the absolute majority, and my personal score grew stronger each time. This reflects renewed trust and, above all, a heightened sense of responsibility.
You hold the absolute majority in Wellin under the banner of your list “Wellin Demain”, and you have significantly improved your personal score for this term. What assessment do you make of your recent years as mayor?
From the outset, our team relied on one central principle: maintaining a long-term vision while staying close to citizens and local committees, building a coherent strategy and acting within a strict budgetary framework. This allowed us to adopt structural tools such as the Strategic Cross-cutting Programme, the Municipal Development Scheme, the Local Cleanliness Plan… These are not mere documents: they serve to give clear direction, set concrete objectives and align all municipal actions.
At their core, our priorities respond to residents' very concrete expectations:
- Cleanliness and safety, including road safety, because these are the foundations of living well together;
- Energy renovation of our municipal buildings, so as to be exemplary and responsible;
- Beautifying and improving public spaces and maintaining the municipal road network, to boost our municipality's attractiveness;
- Developing services for residents, particularly for families and children (homework support, municipal nursery, early childhood support…).
Another essential part of our record concerns the management of municipal finances. When we took over responsibilities in 2018, the municipality was coming out of years of regularly deficient accounts. From the moment I took office as mayor, I made budgetary consolidation a priority, while also reducing the local income tax surcharge. We reversed the trend, generated surpluses and built up significant reserves and provisions. These reserves are proving valuable today, as municipalities' financial outlook becomes uncertain amid a complicated global economic context.
A mayor must be both ambitious in projects and prudent in management: that is the line we have followed.
With the term barely under way, many projects still need to be delivered. How do you see the future of your municipality in terms of projects and development?
The term began a year ago and many projects still need to be delivered. But one reality stands out: needs are unlimited, whereas resources are not. The situation becomes all the more complex as certain subsidies decrease. Municipalities have often had to cope with heavy administrative requirements and calls for projects imposing constraints sometimes far removed from local realities. In this context, I champion the MR's pragmatic approach: I prefer mechanisms that respect municipal autonomy, such as drawing rights, because they let us decide our own priorities based on real needs on the ground and with a logic of optimal management.
Wellin's future must be built around a structured method: prioritise, plan, involve and act. Prioritising investments according to our means, while maintaining overall coherence. And above all: broad involvement. Even though we hold an absolute majority, I want to bring all municipal councillors, including the opposition, into a shared reflection within a working group. All goodwill is welcome, provided it is genuinely constructive. Wellin deserves for us to move beyond deadlock logics and work together in the service of citizens.
Our ambition is to make Wellin a clean, safe, welcoming, attractive and well-managed municipality. In short, a municipality where people want to live, settle and build the future.