In 1895 he was elected a Socialist town councillor in Ghent. From 1908 to 1919 he sat in the Senate for the Arrondissement of Liège, and from 1919 until his death for the Arrondissement of Eeklo. He took the leading role in organising the Universal and International Exhibition held in Ghent in 1913. After the First World War he was appointed royal commissioner for the devastated areas, playing a particular role in the post-war rebuilding of Nieuwpoort.