Michel Demaret

Originally a club bouncer of humble origin from the Marolles neighbourhood, his general attitude and manner of speech made him a target for jokes, but also for popularity among many electors and TV viewers, particularly after the broadcasting of two documentaries about him, at that time still a low level employee at the Retirement Office, by Fait Divers, a famous Belgian television magazine, realized in 1971 and 1972 by Jean-Jacques Péché and Pierre Manuel, Les Fonctionnaires (the Public Servants) and Week-end ou la qualité de la vie (Week end or quality of life). The magazines have been put on the air a lot of times in the next quarter of a century by the Belgian TV, always with a high success. Another documentary, Tel qu'en lui-même enfin (Finally as himself) was made in 1997 by the Strip Tease magazine, filmed at the peak of Demaret's political career.^[1]

After the first documentaries, he was recruited by the former Prime Minister Paul Vanden Boeynants for his Belgian Christian Social Party. He became alderman for the Registry Offices (1976–1982), for Registry Offices, Urbanism and Personnel (1982–1988) and for Public Works and Communal Properties (1988–1994), he was also briefly interim Mayor of Brussels from 20 July 1993 to 24 March 1994, after the death of Hervé Brouhon. He was the only Christian Social mayor in the city's political history, as his mentor Vanden Boeynants was under judicial enquiry each time he tried to rise to this function. He was president of the social housing society Le Foyer laekenois from 1978, a function that made it possible for him to enlarge his clientelist practices. He was also a member of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region (from 12 July 1989 till 1999).^[2]