Sammy Mahdi

Sammy Mahdi (born 21 September 1988) is a Belgian Christian-Democrat politician, a member and the president of CD&V, who in March 2020 became a member of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.

Sammy Mahdi
Mahdi in 2022
Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration
In office 1 October 2020 – 27 June 2022
Monarch	Philippe
Prime Minister	Alexander De Croo
Preceded by	Maggie De Block
Succeeded by	Nicole de Moor
Member of the Chamber of Representatives
In office 17 March 2020 – 1 October 2020
Constituency	Flemish Brabant
Personal details
Born	(1988-09-21) 21 September 1988 (age 36) Ixelles, Brussels, Belgium
Political party	CD&V
Alma mater	Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Occupation	Politician

On 1 October 2020, Mahdi became Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration in the new government led by Alexander De Croo. In June 2022, he became the president of the CD&V party.

Life

Mahdi was born in Ixelles (Brussels) to an Iraqi refugee father and a Flemish mother.^[1] He studied political science at the Vrije Universiteit Brussel and obtained a master's degree in international and European law. From 2014 to 2017, he was a parliamentary assistant to Flemish Member of Parliament Joris Poschet. Since 2016 he is also a regular columnist for the newspaper De Morgen.

After being a board member of Jong CD&V since 2015, in 2017 Mahdi became the chair of the youth section of CD&V,^[2] re-elected in 2019.^[3]

From 2015 to 2017, Mahdi was chairman of the CD&V section of Sint-Jans-Molenbeek. In the last year, Mahdi moved to Vilvoorde,^[4] where he became a board member of the local CD&V section. Since January 2019 he is also a municipal councilor of Vilvoorde and chairman of the CD&V faction in the city council.

In October 2019 he ran to succeed Wouter Beke as party leader,^[5] in what became a close race with Joachim Coens, who in the final round won due to greater support in West Flanders and among elderly party members.^[6]

After several years involved in party organisation and in local politics, Mahdi was elected a reserve member of the Chamber of Representatives for the constituency of Flemish Brabant in the 2019 Belgian federal election, and in March 2020 took his seat in the chamber when Koen Geens became a member of the Wilmès II Government.^[7] As a result, he also resigned as chairman of Jong CD&V.

On 1 October 2020, Mahdi became Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration in the cabinet of Alexander De Croo.^[8] He said in statements to local media that he intends to increase the deportations of asylum seekers who did not have the right to stay in Belgium.^[9] After the outbreak of the 2021 Taliban offensive, a few days before the establishment of the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, he refused to impose a moratorium on Belgium deportation practices to Afghanistan, despite calls from the Afghan government, the European Union and Amnesty International to stop those extraditions on the ground of degrading humanitarian situation.^[10]

In November 2021, four representatives of the hunger strikers of the Béguinage Church accused Mahdi of "unprecedented betrayal." The accusation came after the Belgian authorities rejected the requests for residence permits filed by hunger strikers. The strikers had halted their two-months long hunger strike in July 2021 after representatives of Mahdi promised them that their individual files will be accepted for regularization. Mahdi defended himself against the accusation by referring to his past objections to group amnesties for undocumented workers.^[11]

In May 2022, following an early election due to a significant drop in the party's standing in the polls, he ran again for the presidency of the CD&V. He was then the only candidate. In June 2022, with 97%, he became president of the party.^[12][13]

In September 2023, he competed on Belgium Drag Queen TV show Make Up Your Mind (Belgium) Season 1, which he came first.

In the 2024 Belgian federal election, he was elected to the Belgian Chamber of Representatives.

References

1. Fiche Sammy Mahdi on the website of CD&V Vilvoorde.
2. "Sammy Mahdi is nieuwe voorzitter Jong CD&V". Bruzz (in Dutch). 11 March 2017.
3. "Sammy Mahdi herverkozen als voorzitter van Jong CD&V". Het Laatste Nieuws (in Dutch). 17 November 2019. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
4. Peeters, Tine (19 May 2017). "Voorzitter Jong CD&V verhuist van Molenbeek naar Vilvoorde". De Morgen (in Dutch). Retrieved 22 December 2022.
5. "Nieuwe voorzitter CD&V wordt havenbaas Joachim Coens of jongerenvoorzitter Sammy Mahdi". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 18 November 2019.
6. "West-Vlamingen en senioren kroonden Coens tot voorzitter CD&V". Het Nieuwsblad (in Dutch). 17 December 2019.
7. Yves Lambrix; Liliana Casagrande (17 March 2020). "Coronaregering-Wilmès II van start: "Ik ben vastberadener dan ooit"". Het Belang van Limburg (in Dutch).
8. "Overzicht: wie is wie in regering-De Croo?". Knack (in Dutch). Retrieved 3 October 2020.
9. "Son of Iraq refugee takes office as migration and asylum minister in Belgium". Middle East Monitor. 20 October 2020. Retrieved 22 December 2022.
10. Armstrong, Mark (10 August 2021). "Six EU countries call for forced return of Afghans to continue". Euronews.
11. Walker, Lauren (2 November 2021). "'We were deceived': Hunger strikers accuse government of betrayal". The Brussels Times. Retrieved 26 December 2022.
12. Van Fleteren, Dario (25 June 2022). "Sammy Mahdi nu officieel voorzitter van CD&V". De Standaard (in Flemish). Retrieved 14 November 2022.
13. "Sammy Mahdi is the new leader of the Flemish Christian democrats". VRTNWS. 25 June 2022. Retrieved 14 November 2022.