Jean-Marie Dedecker takes oath as mayor after heart surgery (Middelkerke)

During a routine check by the doctor it turned out that Dedecker urgently needed. Because of the procedure, he was out of battle for weeks. The oath was postponed to today/Monday.

Dedecker first talked to the governor behind closed doors. A few local files were discussed. Afterwards the mayor took the oath in the hands of the governor, in the presence of his wife.

The coastal mayor is doing well in the meantime. « I will take it easy for the time being and only follow the most needed things. I am also sticking to a strict schedule that the doctor has imposed on me to prevent overloading. I have done top sport, so I am just having discipline in that, » says Dedecker, who is not going to work for the time being. « On the Day of Labor, May 1, I normally go back to work. »

Read too. « I have already had a fantastic rich life, but I wasn’t ready to go yet »: Jean-Marie Dedecker more combative than ever after open heart surgery

For Dedecker and his wife the diagnosis at the doctor was a shock. « If you enter for a normal check and you should suddenly no longer stand up until you can be operated on, then that is a feature, » he says. Yet Dedecker is not going to tackle it differently. « I have always done and said what I want and I will continue to do that. As far as Brussels is concerned, I will take it easy. I will limit myself to legislative proposals that absolutely affect us. Forty hours in parliament meet, that is over. After 25 years of politics I got some understanding. »

Thanks to the incident, Dedecker has discovered a human side of politics. « I was shocked by the sympathy of people. Also outside of my own municipality I got wishes from whom I didn’t expect it at all, » he says. « I have always been a louse in the fur. Even from parties or politicians I have argued with, I received messages from friend and foe. The political world is a hard world, but because of this I got to know it for a piece as a human world. »