His father Luc Claes was a councilor for the New Flemish Alliance and the alderman in Rumst.

During his studies Claes was a member of the Nationalistische Studentenvereniging and the New Flemish Alliance party.

[1] In 2014 he left the N-VA due to disagreeing with the course of the party and joined Vlaams Belang.

party after sharing a post on Twitter referring to transgender Belgian Minister Petra De Sutter as "the personification of cultural Marxism."

Flemish Parliament speaker Liesbeth Homans described Claes' tweet as "reprehensible" but said she defended his right to freedom of expression.