Moroccan-Belgian Rachid Madrane becomes the Brussels-Capital region’s parliament speaker

Moroccan-Belgian politician Rachid Madrane was elected, Thursday, as the speaker of the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital region, Belgian newspaper Le Soir reports.

The newly elected speaker said that he was «ready to take up this new challenge» and added that he was «happy» to become the Speaker of the Brussels’ parliament.

«It is a great pride and honor to be able to preside the Brussels’ parliament, an emblematic institution that represents democracy» in Belgium, he recently told MAP. «It is a position that I have never thought of holding, but I think it is a great opportunity», he added.

In 2011, Rachid Madrane was elected vice-president of the Brussels Federation of the Socialist Party, before becoming in 2012 state secretary of public hygiene and urbanism in the Brussels-Capital Region and Minister of Vocational Training, Social Action, Culture, Sports, and International Relations at the French Community Commission (COCOF).

He joined the government of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation in 2014, where he was appointed Minister before being entrusted respectively in 2016 and 2018, the departments of Sports and Youth.