Sofie Merckx

Sofie J. E. Merckx is a Belgian physician, politician and member of the Chamber of Representatives. A member of the Workers' Party of Belgium, she has represented Hainaut since June 2019.
Merckx was born on 10 May 1985 in Dinant. She grew up in the Hoboken neighbourhood of Antwerp and Dutch is her mother tongue. Her father, a general practitioner and a communist, was one of the founders of the , the precursor to the Workers' Party of Belgium, and . She studied medicine at the University of Antwerp and the Université libre de Bruxelles. She moved to Charleroi in Wallonia in the late 1990s for her internship with MPLP. She has lived in Wallonia since then and has worked as a general practitioner at the MPLP's health centre in Marcinelle.
Merckx was elected to the municipal council in Charleroi at the 2012 local election. She was re-elected at the 2018 local election. She was elected to the Chamber of Representatives at the 2019 federal election. In January 2022 she succeeded Raoul Hedebouw as the PTB's group leader in the Chamber of Representatives. She was re-elected at the 2024 federal election.
Merckx has three children.