On Sunday, Belgium's Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib gave her first speech at an MR party conference, having only joined the party in November. She revealed that she felt "completely at home" within the party and was proud to defend their liberal values.
Belgium's French-speaking liberal party MR held their first party meeting of the year on Sunday at a former mining site in Charleroi.
Among those in attendance was a mix of the party's militants and party grandees such as former Belgian PM and current President of the European Council Charles Michel.
They were treated to speeches by both the party's current president Georges-Louis Bouchez, as well as Belgium's Foreign Affairs Minister Hadja Lahbib. The latter was making her first appearance at an MR conference since joining the party in November of this year.
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She had been appointed as Foreign Affairs Minister in July of 2022 to replace Sophie Wilmès, Belgium's first female Prime Minister, who had resigned to tend to her cancer-stricken husband. At that time, Lahbib was not a party member, as she had been a TV journalist for over twenty years.
However, she joined the party in November of last year and was invited to give her first speech to other party members on Sunday, where she revealed that she felt "completely at home with you and I am ready to defend our values."
Lahbib then proceeded to name check the women who had inspired her to wear her liberal stripes on her chest such as Simone Veil, "who was behind France's legalisation of abortion," as well as her predecessor Wilmès, "who managed the pandemic with a great deal of humanity."
