Elisabeth Degryse shared her thoughts on public engagement and her initial anxiety about her new role as Minister-President of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in an address on Wednesday to some 600 students at the Catholic University of Louvain.
Delivering the inaugural lecture at UCLouvain's 's Faculty of Political Science, Ms. Degryse explained the process of negotiating a majority agreement.
As the political secretary of Les Engagés party, she worked alongside party leader Maxime Prévot on negotiations with the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) to form majority agreements for Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation.
Although she had never discussed it with her party leader, her ministerial appointment in mid-July had not come as a surprise since her name had been mentioned in the press. However, she was shocked when Prévot told her she would oversee Culture, Budget, Higher Education, and International Relations.
“I told him it was impossible to handle so much," she recalled. "We had just decided to reduce the portfolio sizes! I really thought: ‘I won’t manage.’ It was a bit scary.”
After her lecture, students asked her various questions, including about obstacles in her political career.
“To be honest, I haven’t faced many; maybe because I’m quite strong-willed," the Minister-President said. "I’ve never been harassed on the street. Well, there was one time and the guy got slapped,” she added, making the audience laugh.
Minister-president Degryse, who is a mother of four, praised her husband. “Were he not there, I would not be here today,” she acknowledged. “He reduced his working hours to four-fifths of the time, which is usually the opposite. He takes care of the children’s medical appointments….”
Questioned about assigning the Women's Rights portfolio to a male minister - Yves Coppieters -, Ms. Degryse defended the decision.
“We need to stop assuming only women should handle women’s rights,” she argued. “It’s like saying only a disabled person can handle disability issues, or only someone from the cultural sector can manage culture.”
