“I advocate more respect for everyone, from the elderly to drag queens,” that was the message from CD&V member Sammy Mahdi, who this weekend was crowned winner of ‘Make Up Your Mind’, an entertaining show in which private individuals transform themselves into drag queens. Mahdi wanted to break the taboo with his participation, but doesn’t he also hope to win souls for the coming elections?
“I have my doubts about it,” says political journalist Isolde Vanden Eynde, who weighs Mahdi’s passage as a drag queen on HLN LIVE. “It is not the first time that a politician has appeared in an entertainment program or dressed up – just think of Conner Rousseau who dressed up as a rabbit in The Masked Singer or Bart De Wever who once crawled into a panda suit, but there is still a difference ”.
According to Vanden Eynde, these were “two very popular programs, while ‘Make Up Your Mind’ is a program that is a bit further from the ordinary citizen, and perhaps also a bit too eccentric.” Vanden Eynde also questions his political message. “He wants to stand up for LGBTQIA+ rights, but to be honest: almost every politician at Pride stands up for that, so I don’t know if this program was necessary.”
But does his participation yield anything electorally? “He might score with a very young audience. Many young people are going to the polls for the first time. However, it is difficult to predict whether this will appeal. In any case, the conservative voters of CD&V must have been shocked when they saw this.”