D’Orazio to Lead Walloon Cities Union With Fiscal Warning
Liberal politician Samuel D’Orazio has been named president of the Union of Cities and Municipalities of Wallonia (UVCW), the body representing the region’s 262 municipalities, and marked his appointment with a blunt fiscal message: communes facing financial pressure must either raise taxes or rationalise their spending. He formally takes office on 6 October 2026, succeeding Rachel Sobry.
The appointment, announced by the Reformist Movement (MR) on Tuesday, 8 September, places the mayor of Tubize at the head of the main advocacy body for Walloon local authorities at a moment of acute financial strain for the region’s towns and cities.
A Liberal Turning the Page
According to RTBF, D’Orazio intends to approach the role “as a manager,” arguing that in the current crisis “it is also up to the communes to do their part.” That part, in his view, necessarily involves a rationalisation of municipal services.
His posture marks a tonal shift from that of his predecessor. Sobry had publicly criticised a “scissors effect” squeezing local authorities, trapped between rising charges and revenues eroded by cost-shifting from higher levels of government. D’Orazio, by contrast, says he is “very much in phase” with MR president Georges-Louis Bouchez, and stresses that every level of power must make its own effort.
As L-Post reported, D’Orazio framed the presidency as both a mark of his party’s confidence and a responsibility: “Citizens turn first to their commune when they encounter a problem. Defending the communes means defending their ability to act concretely for citizens.”
The Fiscal Choice
The centrepiece of D’Orazio’s early messaging is a stark binary. “There are two possibilities: either the easy way, we tax and so we go into the pockets of workers, or we think and we take rationalisation measures,” he told RTBF. “Either we tax, or we rationalise.”
That framing points toward potentially controversial structural reforms. D’Orazio argues for synergies between communes and CPAS — the public social welfare centres that represent a heavy financial burden on local authorities — as well as between police zones, which he says carry comparable costs. “We duplicate services,” he warned, adding that very rapid measures are needed.
He also refuses to treat the word “merger” as taboo, whether for municipalities or police zones. Questioning whether Wallonia can still sustain communes of only 6,000 to 7,000 inhabitants, he points across the linguistic border to Flanders, where municipal mergers have been carried out. He cites Hasselt as evidence that the financial advantages are substantial. “At a certain point we will have to get there,” he said.
Background: A Local Sector Under Strain
The pressure D’Orazio inherits is well documented. In June 2026, the UVCW and the mayors of the nine largest Walloon cities presented a study warning of a growing imbalance between the charges borne by city-centres and the revenues available to them, calling for structural refinancing.
As RTBF reported at the time, Charleroi mayor Thomas Dermine (PS) described the problem as structural rather than cyclical, noting that 55% of Walloons live in one of the nine major cities. Liège mayor Willy Demeyer (PS) warned that without changes to financing mechanisms, large cities could face mounting difficulties by 2027.
Yet D’Orazio downplays the impact of reforms decided at federal and regional level — including by his own MR party — on his home commune, describing it as “almost nil” in Tubize, while allowing that “it can be worked on.” The distinction matters: where the outgoing leadership emphasised a structural shortfall in funding, the incoming president leans toward internal reorganisation.
A Paradoxical Profile
D’Orazio’s biography adds a distinctive dimension to the role. He is the son of Roberto D’Orazio, a well-known former Belgian trade unionist of Italian origin — a filiation he does not disown. “I am very proud of that story. It is part of my origins,” he said. “The only difference is that I don’t drive a bulldozer.”
A lawyer and jurist by profession, D’Orazio was elected mayor of Tubize in October 2024, leading an MR-Engagés-Réveil citoyen coalition. He briefly served as deputy chief of staff to francophone minister Jacqueline Galant (MR), stepping down for scheduling reasons.
On taxation, he signals caution. Asked whether taxation should shift from labour to capital, he advocates “balance,” and warns that heavily taxing large wealth risks driving employers abroad. “My first interest is that people in my commune can have work,” he said. “So today I am more benevolent in trying to attract companies than to scare them.”
What’s Next
Sobry steps down from the UVCW presidency and board to become political secretary of the MR group in the Walloon Parliament. She is replaced on the board by Raphaël Dubois, mayor of Waremme.
For Bouchez, the choice is straightforward: D’Orazio is “an invested mayor, close to citizens and attentive to realities on the ground.” Whether that profile translates into consensus across a sector facing difficult trade-offs between taxation and reorganisation is the central question his presidency will have to answer — beginning on 6 October.