Belgian PM says being Jewish ‘is an important element in my life’
Wilmès’s mother is an Ashkenazi Jew who lost several relatives in the Holocaust.
By JERUSALEM POST STAFFA Belgian national flag flies over the Royal Palace(photo credit: FRANCOIS LENOIR / REUTERS)
The Prime Minister of Belgium, Sophie Wilmès, said that having a Jewish mother has been "an important element in my life," the European Jewish Press reported.The 45-year-old prime minister is the first woman to hold the position in the country's 189-year history, a position she reached after serving as the country's budget minister, and succeeding former prime minister Charles Michel, who was named the President of the European Council in 2019.Wilmès’s mother is an Ashkenazi Jew who lost several relatives in the Holocaust. Wilmès said that her Jewish mother is an important part of her life, but not the only one."It is part of important elements that are building myself. One has not only one identity," Wilmès said in an interview with local Belgian media.Belgium, one of the EU countries that is least friendly towards Israel, currently has a caretaker government tasked only with responding to the coronavirus pandemic, so parliamentary decisions have a greater significance for foreign policy than in a time that there is a majority-backed government.
