Born on 20 November 1958 to a Dutch-speaking father and a French-speaking mother, Rudi Vervoort is what is typically called a “zinneke” [a person of mixed origin]. From a very young age, he followed current events and the political debate with passion thanks to his subscription to the daily Le Soir, which he asked his parents to get for him when he was in his teens. This enthusiasm for public affairs led him in particular to become president of the “Cercle de Droit” [Law Union] at the French-speaking Free University of Brussels (ULB) when he was a student.
His political commitment then came naturally, because “when you study law, you understand very quickly the left/right stakes.” Rudi became a member of the Socialist Party at the age of 22.
In 1989, he was elected municipal councillor in Evere, the municipality where he grew up and where he still lives. An alderman in 1993, he exercised his duties in sport, education, culture, then finance, before becoming mayor in 1998.
In 1999, he was elected regional deputy and entered the Brussels Parliament. At the same time, he assumed the leadership of the Socialist Party group, which would drive him to defend and to turn the values of the Socialist Party into concrete measures for the benefit of our Region and its inhabitants. He was also a member of parliament in the Wallonia-Brussels Federation from 2004 to May 2013.
In 2011, Rudi was elected Vice-President of the Brussels Federation of the Socialist Party and succeeded Philippe Moureaux.
The ever quiet and thoughtful appearance hides a devotee of the pleasures of life. A lover of good food and an unconditional fan of classical and contemporary rock music (Rolling Stones, Led Zeppelin, Radiohead, dEUS,…), Rudi attends various festivals every year such as Rock Werchter. He is also a nature lover and a touring enthusiast. He climbed Mount Kilimanjaro in 2009.
Since he arrived at the head of the Government of the Brussels-Capital Region in May 2013, Rudi Vervoort has given new impetus to governmental action. Keen to take up the challenges faced by the Region, the Minister-President has left his imprint on the Government of Brussels.
His efforts during the 2014-2019 legislature convinced the denizens of Brussels, since they placed their trust in him in large numbers during the elections in May 2019. Rudi Vervoort heads the Government until the next elections in May 2024. The Minister-President continues to see through the projects he identified as taking priority in order to approve the daily life of the people of Brussels. The major stakes include, by way of example, the ecological challenges, urban development, the improvement of the employment rate for the city’s inhabitants, the development of multimodal mobility, the construction and renovation of housing units and the improvement of the Region’s image in Belgium and abroad.