Following the barrage of criticism faced by Georges-Louis Bouchez, the leader of the Francophone liberal MR party, for his appearance on a Flemish reality television show Special Forces: Who Dares Wins last week, the man has now thrown in the towel after only two episodes.
Bouchez made himself anything but popular – with viewers as well as the ten other candidates – during the first episode due to his lack of effort. After another weak performance in the second episode, he drew his own conclusions and decided to give up, followed by gentle applause from the group.
"I take my responsibility," Bouchez said in the programme, after being criticised for his laziness. "It is hard for me that the group was punished several times because of me. Then you have to take responsibility and decide that enough is enough."
The reality show is a spin-off of a similar scenario broadcast in the UK, which itself lifts the motto of the Special Air Service – an elite unit of the British Army famed for their courage and survival skills. Bouchez took part along with ten other celebrities – including singers, actors and athletes – to follow a six-day training course in the Moroccan desert to join the Special Forces, the Belgian army's elite unit.
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As Bouchez announced several weeks ago that he became a reservist in the Belgian Army, his exit in just the second episode also immediately raised questions about the difficulty of the Defence tests he had to take, which Bouchez claimed he passed "effortlessly."
The pressure of his work as a politician was the issue, he explained. "I should have prepared better physically, but my work prevented that. I did not exercise enough and I paid that price today. If you do not contribute anything to the group, but only cost it, then you have to take your responsibility and leave."
Following the criticism of his appearance in the first episode, Bouchez told viewers to hold their judgement until they had seen the next episodes, saying that it would show he is "someone who takes his responsibility."
While many have argued that Bouchez will welcome the exposure his participation has given him, it is uncertain whether Special Forces has boosted his image in Flanders as newspapers and social media were highly critical of his performance, drew comparisons with his political attitudes and emphasised that he was called a "dead weight."
