“I was never a man of few words and then the most beautiful dialogue turns out to be so short: Yes? Yes!”, says Peter De Roover on Instagram page, next to a photo that hugs each other intimately and in great happiness. De Roover adds: “What I tell you about this romance: honi soit qui mal y pense (scandal for those who think badly about it).”

Antwerp NVA alderman Els Vanburg also posted a photo on Instagram and with a short message. “We like to keep our private lives private, but we still wanted to share these events. This was of course no surprise to our intimate circle. Thank you for the overwhelming amount of messages we have received. It’s a special experience when your friends and family send “don’t read the comments on social media” or “don’t care what people say” when you announce your engagement and that we didn’t do it so we have to disappoint the haters. We are just very happy.”

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The couple lives close to Sint-Jansplein in Antwerp. Remarkably, she is 27 years ago in age. Peter De Roover is 59, Els van Doesburg 32, which is a few years more difference than French President Emmanuel Macron (43) and his spouses between Brigitte (68), but they have been together for about 25 years.

It also emerged that Els van Doesburg made a strong promotion at the beginning of June when they unexpectedly became ships in Antwerp in succession to Fons Duchateau. She was still unknown to the general public. In the 2018 local elections, her debut on the political scene, she had won 1,725 ​​votes, not bad for a new place on the list, of course. She had made a name for herself as a conservative columnist for the Flemish nationalist site Doorbraak.be.

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Els van Doesburg was born in Soest, near Utrecht. She emigrated to Schilde when she was ten, according to an acquaintance after her parents’ divorce. She went to school in Mall (Sint-Janscollege), international political science and ended up in the parliamentary service of Zuhal Demir, then still a member of parliament for the N-VA. From there, Els van Doesburg switched to Peter De Roover’s team. “We have been streaming about each other,” De Ro said earlier in this newspaper. “This was often during moments of political tension, often the days were long. Then you fall back on small people, that creates a bond.” The latter was a spectacular understatement, somewhere along the way the spark passed and they became a couple.

They will be kept secret for a long time, but recently they have been spotted together more often and it was time for the announcement. They had already decided a year ago that it was not a good idea to remain direct colleagues, thinking that her job was a result of the relationship. Els van Doesburg then took it seriously to study nursing in health care sciences, but that never happened. That they instead of ships may raise eyebrows, but according to a party insider De Roover is there for nothing. She did, however, get to know Bart De Wever through him, during his short passages in parliament, when there was a need for tuning on Thursday. Such encounters can be useful for a young, ambitious politician.

Age difference

Peter De Roover himself is the first to express his concern about the large age difference. In the original conversation with Gazet van Antwerpen, he acknowledged that she has her appearance with her: “That can also mean the risk that they only view as a photo. But I can say that it’s about a beautiful one of a lot more. She also makes no secret of the fact that they look good and that it could help, not even in interviews. She doesn’t give a damn about that.”

Peter De Roover has a son from a marriage that took place in 2003, he mentioned his failed problems in an interview a few years ago. The son is slightly younger than his partner.