Mayor of the affluent and leafy Brussels suburb Ukkel Boris Dilliès (Francophone liberal MR) is the new Brussels PM. He is not the most well-known name outside his fief. What is his background?
Dilliès has been mayor of Ukkel for almost 10 years and alderman for more than 20 years. Between 2014 and 2018, he was also a member of the Brussels Parliament. And as a youngster, Dilliès also worked in the office of various Brussels ministers: between 1995 and 2000 for Secretary of State Eric André, and from 2000 to 2003 for Brussels PM François-Xavier de Donnéa.
Dilliès may have been born in “his” Ukkel, the Brussels municipality where he claims to know every corner and street, but he spent the first 10 years of his life in Vence, in the south of France. His father is French, which means that Dilliès still has dual nationality. He was bitten by the political bug at the age of eight, he says on his own website. ‘Even then, I wanted to attend all the meetings of (the future French president) Jacques Chirac.’
Dilliès’s maternal grandfather, who worked closely with King Leopold III and King Boudewijn, was a particular influence on his grandson. At the age of 15, having returned to Belgium, the new Brussels PM joined the youth wing of the Liberal Party, the Jeunes Réformateurs Libéraux. He soon became its chair.
Dilliès went on to study political science and international relations and at the age of 21 he stood as a candidate in the municipal elections in Ukkel. He came five votes short of being elected. But he didn't despair: in 1997, he ended up on the council after all, after another councillor left the assembly.
Meanwhile, Dilliès was working for Brussels junior minister Eric André in the Brussels government. His next employer, PM F-X de Donnéa, also impressed him.
Dilliès remained politically active, but in 2002 he took a professional detour: he went to work for the Dutch publishing house Wolters Kluwer, was subsequently responsible for communications at the Cercle de Lorraine, a club for wealthy businessmen, and eventually went on to teach at the European Communication School.
From mayor to regional prime minister
His political career really took off after the death of Eric André. In 2005, he became an alderman in Ukkel and remained part of the municipal council during the following legislative periods. In 2014, he was also elected as a member of the Brussels Parliament, where he became chair of the Infrastructure Committee.
He resigned from this position when he was able to succeed Armand De Decker as mayor of Ukkel at the end of 2017. He remained in this position until last week, when he received a call from G-L Bouchez, the Francophone liberal leader. Dilliès did not have to think long before accepting the offer to become the first liberal Prime Minister of the Brussels Region in 22 years. ‘It is an honour and a great challenge,’ he said upon his arrival at the Brussels Parliament.
So, what about his politics?
Dilliès has always been opposed to the merger of the Brussels police zones, which is being imposed by the federal government and implemented by his own party colleague, interior minister Bernard Quintin.
He was also clearly not a fan of the Good Move interventions by Brussels Mobility Minister Elke Van den Brandt (Flemish ecologist Groen), who will also fulfil the same role in his government team.
And what about his Dutch, after all Dilliès becomes the PM of Belgium’s sole bilingual region?
‘Very poor,’ he admitted last week, ‘but I'm working on it.’ However, in May last year, he suggested, albeit, tongue in cheek that Ukkel should leave Brussels and join Flanders if the region were to have a government including the Communist PTB.
‘Flanders is better governed, unemployment is lower and people feel safer there,’ he said at the time. He will now have to make good on that in the capital region.