She was “discovered” at the time of the Sabena bankruptcy by Yves Leterme, whom she would remain loyal to throughout the years. As a union representative, a trade seemingly dominated by greying 50-something males, she stood out – not just for her looks but also for her gift of rhetoric. Leterme saw in her – a young, female city dweller (Mechelen) – just what was needed to rejuvenate his ailing party. When he became minister-president in 2004, she became the minister for welfare.
Another high for Vervotte was 2007, when CD&V, still joined up with N-VA at the time, won the federal elections, marking the end of the Verhofstadt era. Not being a “table jumper”, she ended up on a table anyway, as Leterme pulled her up on a desk to cheers of party officials.
The scene is memorable and not just for political reasons. Vervotte’s elevated position gave full view of her full attire. On the hot summer day, she wore black stockings. Never the most trendy of her generation, those stockings coined her reputation for being something of a nun forever.
But Vervotte had no time for such shallowness. In the beginning of her career, she admitted to a love of motorbikes and the lead singer of rock band Zornik, but, apart from that, there was nothing frivolous about her. She preferred to concentrate on her job, recently describing herself as a “quiet worker ant”.
With the highs, came the lows. One of those was the end of 2008, when, amidst the Fortis crisis, Leterme and Jo Vandeurzen – the two men with her on that table just one year earlier– resigned as prime minister and justice minister respectively. Vervotte, shocked by the roughness of the game, resigned, too. Like Leterme, she returned, only to see her party lose the 2010 elections and to remain caretaker minister seemingly ad infinitum.
Her leaving politics is these days described as typical of Generation Y, whose commitments are sincere, but limited in time. In this respect, Vervotte became trendy after all, stocking or no stockings.
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