With a surprising move, the former mayor of Forest Stéphane Roberti (Ecolo) also wants to recover the salary he missed in 2022 during his absence. The démarche causes unrest in the Forest aldermen.
Flashback to November 2020. Roberti, who had been mayor of Vorst for about two years at the time, announced that he was putting his office on hold due to “family problems”. It soon becomes known that a burnout is the cause of his break.
Comrade and former alderman Mariam El Hamidine temporarily takes over the torch, not knowing that she would eventually hold that role to this day – first ad interim, officially since May 2022.
Political Soap Opera
In the meantime, Roberti’s departure has taken on the proportions of a painful political soap opera. Where in his first months of absence it was still stated that the former mayor would refund his salary, in the course of 2021 – when Roberti announced a comeback time and time again but postponed it just as often – uncertainty grew about what would meanwhile happen to the ongoing salary of the sick mayor happened.
At the end of 2021, Vorst will therefore call in a law firm to check the legal aspects of the case. It turns out that Roberti should not have received his monthly wage of 8500 euros all those months. Instead, the Green politician should have received disability benefits for the duration of his illness through a health insurance fund.
The newspaper La Libre Belgique published the case and calculated that the amount that Roberti had to repay would be around 100,000 euros.
In mid-2022 it turns out that the former mayor may keep his salary for the duration of his illness, but the fuss does lead to an ordinance that stipulates that Brussels mayors or aldermen who are absent due to illness may only receive their salary for three months . After that, they fall back on health insurance.
Rumbling
But that is still not the end of the matter, because according to La Dernière Heure, Roberti now intends to bring the municipality of Vorst to court. The reason is the failure to pay his wages for the period in 2022 in which he was still title-holding mayor. After all, El Hamidine only took the oath in May 2022.
In addition, the former mayor is asking for 1 euro symbolic compensation for the personal damage he has incurred due to the whole fuss.
The new turn would lead to rumblings in the council of Vorst, tensions that would mainly focus on the green-red axis within the coalition. In concrete terms, Ecolo would rather respond to Roberti’s question, while PS applies the brakes, still according to La Dernière Heure.
It is up to the Vorst aldermen to take a position before the court of first instance by the beginning of February. If it is decided not to pay Roberti’s salary for the months in which he was mayor last year, a process will be initiated.
This article is originally published on bruzz.be
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