In 1906, he put himself candidate as a member of the Belgian parliament, of which he would remain a member up to 1926. He strived for a gradual improvement of the usage of the Dutch language in Flanders, such as with the law Franck-Paul Segers on the usage of Dutch in secondary education in the public schools (1910). Since then he fought on the side of the Roman catholic Frans Van Cauwelaert and the socialist Camille Huysmans (together they were called the three crowing cocks) for the usage of Dutch at the University of Ghent. This brought him on the peak of its popularity in Flanders. In 1911, he was sworn in, as the candidate of the Antwerp liberal party, as a member of the municipal Council of Antwerp.
