Raoul Hedebouw (born 12 July 1977) is a Belgian politician who has served as the president of the

Workers' Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (french: Parti du Travail de Belgique, PTB; nl, Partij van de Arbeid van België, PVDA; ) is a Marxism, Marxist and Socialism, socialist political parties in Belgium, political party in Belgium. It is one of the few ...

(PVDA-PTB) since 2021. He previously served as the national spokesperson of the party until 2021, as well as fraction leader in the

Belgian Chamber of Representatives The Chamber of Representatives (Dutch: , french: link=no, Chambre des représentants, german: link=no, Abgeordnetenkammer) is one of the two chambers in the bicameral Federal Parliament of Belgium, the other being the Senate. It is considered ...

. He furthermore serves as member of the

Liège Liège ( , , ; wa, Lîdje ; nl, Luik ; german: Lüttich ) is a major city and municipality of Wallonia and the capital of the Belgian province of Liège. The city is situated in the valley of the Meuse, in the east of Belgium, not far from b ...

City Council.

Youth

Raoul Hedebouw was born in

Herstal Herstal (; wa, Hesta), formerly known as Heristal, or Héristal, is a city and municipality of Wallonia located in the province of Liège, Belgium. It lies along the Meuse river. Herstal is included in the "Greater Liège" agglomeration, which c ...

on July 12th 1977 in a

Dutch Dutch commonly refers to: * Something of, from, or related to the Netherlands * Dutch people () * Dutch language () Dutch may also refer to: Places * Dutch, West Virginia, a community in the United States * Pennsylvania Dutch Country People E ...

speaking

Flemish Flemish (''Vlaams'') is a Low Franconian dialect cluster of the Dutch language. It is sometimes referred to as Flemish Dutch (), Belgian Dutch ( ), or Southern Dutch (). Flemish is native to Flanders, a historical region in northern Belgium; ...

family, he was raised bilingually, both in

and in French. Hedebouw grew up in a working-class neighbourhood, with his mother working in a factory producing

medical equipment A medical device is any device intended to be used for medical purposes. Significant potential for hazards are inherent when using a device for medical purposes and thus medical devices must be proved safe and effective with reasonable assura ...

and his father as a

steelworker Steel is an alloy made up of iron with added carbon to improve its strength and fracture resistance compared to other forms of iron. Many other elements may be present or added. Stainless steels that are corrosion- and oxidation-resistant ty ...

ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourgian multinational steel manufacturing corporation headquartered in Luxembourg City. It was formed in 2006 from the takeover and merger of Arcelor by Indian-owned Mittal Steel. ArcelorMittal is the second larg ...

. In 1992, his mother was fired, which impacted Hedebouw's views: "What happened to my mother, has been a decisive factor in my engagement." Hedebouw went to study

biology Biology is the scientific study of life. It is a natural science with a broad scope but has several unifying themes that tie it together as a single, coherent field. For instance, all organisms are made up of cells that process hereditary i ...

and

botany Botany, also called , plant biology or phytology, is the science of plant life and a branch of biology. A botanist, plant scientist or phytologist is a scientist who specialises in this field. The term "botany" comes from the Ancient Greek w ...

at the

University of Liège The University of Liège (french: Université de Liège), or ULiège, is a major public university of the French Community of Belgium based in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium. Its official language is French. As of 2020, ULiège is ranked in the 301 ...

Political career

Hedebouw joined the

Marxist Marxism is a Left-wing politics, left-wing to Far-left politics, far-left method of socioeconomic analysis that uses a Materialism, materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to understand S ...

PVDA-PTB and became its spokesperson in 2008. He was first elected as council member in Liège after the local elections of 2012. After the federal elections of 2014 he became one of the first two federal MPs for the PVDA-PTB. Hedebouw often gives his speeches in the

Chamber Chamber or the chamber may refer to: In government and organizations * Chamber of commerce, an organization of business owners to promote commercial interests *Legislative chamber, in politics * Debate chamber, the space or room that houses delib ...

in both

and French, changing from one language to the other between sentences.

Knife attack

When preparing for a speech for the

International Workers' Day International Workers' Day, also known as Labour Day in some countries and often referred to as May Day, is a celebration of labourers and the working classes that is promoted by the international labour movement and occurs every year on 1 May, ...

on May 1st 2017, Hedebouw was attacked and stabbed in the leg. The damage was limited and Hedebouw was able to finish his speech before being taken to hospital, sustaining only a mild injury to his thigh.

Bibliography

* ''Première à gauche. Entretien avec Gilles Martin'' (Left first, an interview with

Gilles Martin Gilles Martin, born May 14, 1956, is a French photojournalist and artivist. Biography Gilles Martin spent his early years in Touraine where his father painted watercolors. Thus he learned to appreciate nature and then, to take pictures of it. A ...

, Editions Aden, 2013)

Notes

References