Morgan Moller

🇧🇪 Meet Conner Rousseau, president of Belgium’s Flemish socialist party, Vooruit. His party received just 8.1% of the national vote, yet he has enough political leverage to paralyze our government during one of Belgium’s worst budgetary crises. Welcome to Belgium, where our political system is completely broken. For years, he kept his sexuality (he’s gay) private while carefully cultivating his image as a young, good-looking political celebrity to get the votes of young females. He resigned as party president in 2023 after making racist and sexist remarks that even members of the far-right never make. And somehow, less than a year later, he was back in charge. He loves luxury, expensive designer clothes and partying on yachts in Ibiza. He has openly admitted that he would love to wear Prada but avoids it because of how people would react. Meanwhile, he lectures ordinary Belgians about the cost-of-living crisis, tells people to live humbly and buy European goods, and campaigns against American economic dependence. All while appearing in a €500 sweater from an American luxury brand. You really cannot make this shit up. A socialist who loves capitalism’s luxuries, enjoys the lifestyle of the wealthy and then lectures everyone else about inequality and affordability. The hypocrisy is astonishing. It must be exhausting to maintain this carefully manufactured political persona every single day and act like someone who he isn’t. And now, with Belgium desperately needing to get its public finances under control, he is one of the central figures holding up a budget agreement. He wants more taxes and not cut in the expenses. All while Belgium is already the country with the highest taxes in the world and all talent, entrepreneurship and capital is leaving the country. He thinks you create wealth by taxing the rich, but admits to never read books, so what does he know. Oh, and he just published a book that he definitely did not write himself. This is the kind of political leadership that has brought Belgium to its knees.