She was deputy prime minister from 2008 to 2014 and held various ministerial positions. She was also a senator and an MP, a politician of the French Community and the Brussels-Capital Region, a councillor of both Woluwe-Saint-Pierre and Brussels and also an alderwoman of last one. She was nicknamed "Madame Non" because of her fierce opposition to a state reform desired by the Dutch-speaking parties during the cabinet formation in 2007.