“En quête de Sens”, meet the person behind the personality

Francis Van de Woestyne has spent his entire professional career at La Libre Belgique and has risen through the ranks: fact checker, local and regional journalist, political journalist, head of the political department, editor-in-chief, editorialist. Over the years, he has specialised in writing about ‘behind the scenes of negotiations’, editorials and in long format interviews. He has written several books of interviews: with Elio Di Rupo, Didier Reynders, Antoinette Spaak. He received the Belfius Press Prize in 2003 and 2020. After the accidental death of his son Victor on 4 November 2016, he initiated “Etats d’âme”, a series of interviews with key international personalities in which he seeks to understand the foundations of commitment, the motivations in their work and in their life. In these interviews, which he has extended to include philosophers, writers, artists, scientists and sportsmen, he also discusses spiritual life: what is the meaning of life and death for them? The aim of these meetings, which encourage hindsight, time and reflection, is to look for the man or woman behind the work or action. To date, around one hundred interviews have been conducted. Thirty-six have already been published in a collection by “Les Impressions nouvelles”.With his wife, Patricia Vergauwen, he also created the Fonds Victor, in memory of their son: the aim of the Fonds Victor is to encourage young people to read. https://www.lefondsvictor.be/

Béatrice Delvaux is editorial writer for Le Soir, a member of the Royal Academy of Belgium, Science and Technology class, and has been a columnist for Standaard and RTBF for over ten years. She was previously editor-in-chief of Le Soir and author of the book “Le bal des Empires” (éditions Racines) with Stefaan Michielsen of Le Standaard, devoted to the upheavals of Belgian capitalism.