Tom Ongena (47) must bring peace to Open Vld again as acting chairman. Wait to see if he succeeds. Many blue pots have boiled over since the departure of Egbert Lachaert.
It is not official yet – in the absence of elections Ongena has to submit his candidacy to a party congress in September – but everyone within Open Vld assumes that little can go wrong. With Ongena, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo chooses to appoint a compromise figure as the new party chairman. Someone who, according to his colleagues, “is definitely not going to do crazy things”.
In any case, Ongena will not receive a full chairmanship. He will provisionally remain in office until next year’s polls (European, national and regional in June and local in October). After that, new presidential elections will normally take place. Ongena seems to be an intermission.
‘Q’
The choice for Ongena is described as “logical” within Open Vld. Of all the possible successors to Lachaert that have passed in review in recent days – more famous names such as Vincent Van Quickenborne, Maggie De Block, Patrick Dewael, Jasper Pillen and Stephanie D’Hose have been doing the rounds – Ongena is the one that evokes the least resistance from the different camps within Open Vld.
Deputy Prime Minister Van Quickenborne, for example – who seemed to be in the balance for De Croo with Ongena – was regarded by a number of party members as a bad option. Because according to his colleagues he should stay on as Minister of Justice. A ‘security department’ where the liberals hope to score in the run-up to the elections. But also because, according to many colleagues, ‘Q’ symbolizes the substantive ass-twisting and the protracted electoral decline of Open Vld.
A liberal source: “Nobody is against Ongena. He will continue the course chosen, all on the Prime Minister.” Ongena had already been appointed campaign leader for 2024 anyway. As a Flemish Member of Parliament and party employee, he has built up a rock-solid reputation. He must become a kind of Flemish version of Olivier Chastel, the MR chairman who served Prime Minister Charles Michel for years.
According to insiders, it is in his favor that Ongena has built up a good relationship with De Croo over the years and that he knows how to keep the Prime Minister’s entourage in line. Under Lachaert, ‘the waywardness’ of the Sixteen was a common complaint at party headquarters. For example, De Croo launched his controversial attack on the European nature restoration law without consultation.
Somers
What should the outside world know about the unknown new Open Vld chairman? Ongena is a lawyer by training and has a long track record within his party. In the past he was spokesperson for Bart Somers, spokesperson and political director of Open Vld itself – during the time that De Croo was chairman – and cabinet assistant for former minister De Block.
After the elections in 2019, he ended up in the Flemish Parliament as the successor to Somers. At the polls, he had to make do with just over 2,500 preference votes. Electorally, there is still work to be done if Ongena wants to hold its own against the tough Antwerp competition.
Although these seem to be concerns for later. The first assignment for Ongena will undoubtedly be to ensure that the liberal ranks remain closed towards the elections. Or better: try to close ranks again, because Lachaert’s departure last Wednesday has caused a particularly turbulent week within Open Vld.
The remarkable departure of Lachaert, the lightning-fast takeover of power by De Croo as interim chairman, the question marks surrounding the substantive course of the party and the protest from the youth department about the state of affairs in the ‘too old’ party board: it came in recent days all together in a toxic cocktail that, according to liberal sources, was reminiscent of the months before the implosion of the Volksunie.
Lachaert
The fact that things had been skewed between Lachaert and De Croo for much longer is now becoming clearer by the day. Lachaert, who was abroad on Tuesday, threw in the towel in disappointment last week. According to his supporters within the party, he was ‘finished’ because his attempts to give Open Vld a bluer jacket constantly collided with stubborn resistance from the Sixteen and his own party board.
In that sense, the departure of Lachaert – who himself had wanted to stay on until after the summer to help arrange his succession, but was immediately countered by the prime minister and the party board – was not a voluntary choice. He no longer saw a future for himself alongside his old companion De Croo. “The hostile party leadership that absolutely wanted to go in a different direction, that was unworkable. He was no longer interested in that.”
It remains to be seen whether the demand from the youth department to radically rejuvenate the party board, including the RedOpenVld petition, will take off. Liberal celebrities such as Karel De Gucht and Guy Verhofstadt are openly targeted. Although the seniors have the feeling that they have already earned their spurs electorally over the years and that it is normal practice for them to have their say in debates within the party.
In his first press release, Ongena already emphasized on Tuesday evening that he wants to work with “the many and often young talent” within his party to “thoroughly renew Open Vld – in terms of personnel”. Operation Reconciliation has begun.
