 After the independence of Belgium in 1830, he initially sided with the Orangist party which preferred re-unification with the Netherlands.On the occasion of the municipality Council elections of 1836 in Ghent, he was on the Orangist list of the Société of the Amis the l'Ordre et du Repos Public, the Orangist list of among others Charles d'Hane Steenhuyse, Hippolyte Metdepenningen, Jean-Baptiste Minne-Barth and Joseph Van Crombrugghe.A year later he was appointed as alderman and became a member of the "Bureel van Weldadigheid", of which he became President in 1841.