Belgian-Moroccan Former Ford Worker Meryame Kitir Appointed Development Minister

Meryame Kitir joined Ford in Genk as a worker in 1999. She discovers the socialist union there, gets involved and becomes a delegate. She is distinguished there by Steve Stevaert, then number one of the Flemish socialist party, and cuts her teeth under his wing.

In 2006, she arrived on the municipal council of Maasmechelen where she managed to get elected, before failing in the Chamber, there too at the ballot box, after the 2007 federal elections. Not at all encumbered, she combines the two positions (in the Chamber and at the Ford factory) during the first few years.

On October 25, 2012, she made an impression with her speech on the announced closure of the Ford plant to which she feels so connected. Re-elected in 2014, she acceded a year later to the position of group leader, succeeding Karin Temmerman. She becomes an icon of the opposition to the Swedish model of Charles Michel.

In 2016, Meryame Kitir arrived on the municipal council of Genk. Last year, she obtained 31,816 preference votes in the federal election.