Elio Di Rupo… a door no one opens alone

Jean-Pierre Mels was also a childhood friend of Elio Di Rupo. That friendship had nothing to do with networking; it came long before offices and titles.

It was through him that Carl De Moncharline met one of the most important political figures in the country. A kind word whispered at the right moment, with nothing to gain: that is how certain doors open, doors no file and no insistence will ever move. Jean-Pierre Mels did that for Carl, simply, because he believed in him.

The photograph below, taken in the late 1970s, belongs to that story. Two young men in black raincoats, friendship before anything else. Its original grain has been preserved; only its legibility has been slightly enhanced.