Puurs Sint-Amands, Mayor of Puurs Sint-Amands and Flemish party leader for CD&V Koen Van den Heuvel (54) follows Joke Schauvliege on as minister of Agriculture, Nature and the Environment. ‘A poisoned gift’ sounds in Puurs Sint-Amands, where Van den Heuvel, the architect of the gemeentefusie. “We view the coming hours and days how we go to address”, responded Peter Van Hoeymissen (CD&V), until the merger, the mayor of Sint-Amands.
Koen Van den Heuvel has, since 1997, mayor of Puurs, and since 1 January 2019 of the new municipality Puurs Sint-Amands. The promotion of the Flemish member of parliament and CD&V party leader to prime minister is no big surprise. As a leader for the Flemish Parliament in the constituency of Antwerp, he must, on may 26, the battle with N-VA-president Bart De Wever. So he has every brand to use. But the other political parties in the new municipality worry about this step and to the timing.
