The World Mayor for 2016 has announced that the winner for 2016. Interestingly, the winner of this accolade is my own local Mayor, Bart Somers.

So what is the World Mayor award?  It is a  two – yearly award that is an initiative of the London think tank group – City Mayors Foundation.  The 2016 World Mayor Project theme was to identify Mayors who have done the most to welcome immigrants and have used their skills to enrich and diversify society – economically, culturally and socially.

The winner – a local man, Bart Somers has for many years been involved in Politics from the early 1990`s as a deputy editor of the VLD publication‘nBurgerkrant’ (citizens newspaper).  In 1994 he was a member of the Mechelen Municipal Council.  Since 2001 Bart Somers has been Mayor of Mechelen, the Minister-President of the Belgian region of Flanders and since 2014, sits in the Flemish regional parliament for the Flemish Liberals and Democrats (VLD).

This cosy little city of Mechelen boasts a population of around 86,000 people coming and counts over 120 different nationalities – making it one of the ,ost multicultural cities in Europe.  Some 10 years ago, the City had a very bleak outlook both within the City Walls and it`s general future.   Locals say that Mechelen has a certain charm about it now – with still some more work to do.

The goal of taking a rather down trodden city to one of the up and coming attractive places in Belgium is indeed true.

Since moving here myself I have also seen a strong support for Entrepreneurial and Pop Up businesses.

Proficiat to @bartsomers!