Patrick Janssens will stand fourth on Vooruit’s list in the municipal elections on 13 October, coming back from his monumental loss to Bart De Wever in 2012
Patrick Janssens, the long-time socialist mayor of Antwerp before being beaten during the meteoric rise of Bart De Wever (N-VA) in 2012, is returning to politics. He will be fourth on Vooruit’s ballot list in the local elections this October.
Janssens (Vooruit) was a major political figure up until that point, serving as mayor of Antwerp from 2003 to 2012. He was chair of the socialist party for four years prior to that and has also sat in both the Flemish and federal parliaments.
His loss to N-VA in 2012 was so significant, he decided to step down from politics entirely once his term in the Flemish parliament was finished in 2014. Then 57, he went on to pursue a PhD in spatial and urban planning at the London School of Economics while serving as guest lecturer at Antwerp University.
I want to contribute to urban planning that puts the interest of the people of Antwerp first
Patrick Janssens
He served as general director of football club KRC Genk from 2014 to 2018 and after that has been working with B-City, a division of B Architecten. His return to politics follows Vooruit’s somewhat unexpected success in the June regional and federal elections.
Janssens, 67, says he has no ambition to become the city’s mayor again. But he is not ruling out a seat on the city council, particularly concerned, he said, about urban development.
“We need to put an end to certain trends,” he said. “For instance, a tunnel is going to be built under the Scheldekaai, which is currently a really love promenade. That tunnel is going to bring more traffic to the centre of the city, when we should be doing the opposite. I want to do everything I can to stop that plan.”
He says that developers have it “far too easy” in Antwerp, “telling the city what they need and then seeing authorities making it happen.” He says that city councillers operate in a bubble. “Every councillor just does their own thing, and the rest have to swallow it.”
In the end, he says, “it’s about the people of Antwerp, not about me. I want to contribute to urban planning that puts the interests of the people of Antwerp first. To that end, Vooruit is indespensible.”