Despite her long absence, it was leaked on Thursday that Flemish MP Sihame El Kaouakibi has requested two part-time parliamentary assistants. According to various sources, it would include Jiri De Laet, just like El Kaouakibi himself, not an unspeakable figure within the Antwerp department of Open Vld.
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De Laet was for a while parliamentary assistant to Willem-Frederik Schiltz in the Flemish Parliament and chairman of the Open Vld district of Antwerp. At the beginning of 2022, Antwerp’s alderman for Economy, Work and Innovation appointed him, together with Jeremy Stevens, as head of cabinet. Caluwaerts counted on Stevens for his legal knowledge and on De Laet for his strong bond with midfield. De Laet was active in neighborhood activities around Sint-Jansplein. In that capacity, in 2021 he still strongly argued against the drug nuisance on Sint-Jansplein, with which he seemed to criticize the drug policy of Mayor Bart De Wever (N-VA) from Open Vld.
A month after he took office as co-head of cabinet, the collaboration with Caluwaerts came to an abrupt end. According to various sources, he fired him as head of cabinet after a problematic working atmosphere had arisen in the cabinet. De Laet was then also asked to resign his chairmanship of Open Vld in the Antwerp district. In September he again ran for president of the Open Vld district of Antwerp, but was not re-elected. In the meantime, he is voluntarily active as coordinator of the neighborhood information network in the 2060 district (Antwerp-North).
According to some sources, he has not found a new job since his resignation from the cabinet of aldermen Caluwaerts, until El Kaouakibi recently nominated him as a parliamentary assistant. That question, however, the parliament rejected. It is not clear what exactly his assignment would have been. El Kaouakibi recently set foot in the Flemish parliament for the first time after two years of absence. De Laet himself could not be reached on Thursday afternoon.
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