Georges-Louis Bouchez

At age 20, he ran in his first election, running as a member of the Mouvement Réformateur for local elections in 2006 in the city of Mons. Placed fourth on the party list, he received 397 votes,[4] missing election by a few votes.[5] In the 2010 elections, he was listed 8th on the MR's electoral list for the Senate.

In 2012, Bouchez was chosen by his colleagues in the MR to run at the top of the electoral list for communal elections in Mons.[6] He received 2,550 votes[7] and served as the Échevin for Budget, Finance, Employment and Sustainable Development for the city under Elio Di Rupo's PS-MR coalition.

During the 2014 regional elections Bouchez was listed as a first substitute[8] on the MR list and received 4,535 votes.[9] When Jacqueline Galant became federal minister of mobility, Bouchez became a Member of the Parliament of Wallonia and a member of the Parliament of the French Community of Belgium.

In April 2016, Jacqueline Galant resigned her role in the federal government following several controversies.[10] Because Bouchez was Galant's substitute, he lost his seats in both parliaments following her return.[11] Four days later, as Bouchez was set to return to his role as Échevin, Mons mayor Elio Di Rupo changed his coalition partner from the MR to the cdH,[12] making Bouchez a communal councilor.

In June 2016, Boluchez became more involved in internal party politics. He joined the Centre Jean Gol, a liberal think tank, and worked to organize and brainstorm new policy ideas for the MR.[5] At the Mouvement réformateur's 2016 policy convention, he fought against attempts by Louis Michel to get rid of compulsory voting,[13] advocated for a universal basic income,[14] increased taxation on robots taking peoples jobs,[15] proposed a second round of elections so citizens could choose from possible coalition options,[16] and advocated for the criminalization of those who praise the Nazi occupation of Belgium.[17]

During the 2018 communal elections, rather than run under the Mouvement Reformateur, Bouchez formed a new opposition electoral alliance called « Mons en Mieux ! » (Mons for the Better!). He was joined by members of the cdH (including Opaline Meunier[18]), the PS and Ecolo and the alliance was supported by the FGTB et CSC unions[19] The alliance received 22% of the vote,[20] gaining 11 seats in the local council, with eight of the seats won by people under 35 years old (the most since 1994). Bouchez himself received the third largest number of first preference votes in the city (4,976 votes).[21]

However, the PS and Ecolo decided to form a coalition, shutting Bouchez out of a leadership role locally.[22]

On March 19, 2019 Charles Michel, leader of the Mouvement Réformateur, named Bouchez as the party's spokesperson during the federal election campaign.[23]

In the 2019 federal elections, Bouchez was placed fourth on the MR electoral list for Hennuyère constituency in Braine-le-Comte, a relatively safe area for the MR electorally.[24] He received 16,522 votes in Hainaut province, the second highest number of first-preference votes. However, he was not elected due to vote transfers within the electoral system. Nevertheless, he became a co-opted Senator for the MR,[25][26] getting sworn in on July 12, 2019.[27] In the Senate, he worked with his colleagues to increase voting rights for Belgians living abroad in regional elections as well as increasing access to vaccines.[28][29]

In October 2019, Bouchez was one of five candidates who ran to replace Charles Michel as leader of the Mouvement Réformateur.[30] On November 28, 2019, Bouchez was elected leader of the party, beating rival Denis Ducarme in the second round with 62% of the vote.[31]

On December 10, 2019, Bouchez was designated Informateur by King Philippe along with Joachim Coens, leader of CD&V, in an attempt to find a workable government coalition following the 2019 federal election.[32] After being unable to find a solution, both men were discharged from their informateur duties on January 31, 2020.