Originally a club bouncer of humble origin from the Marolles neighbourhood, his general attitude and manner of speech made him a target for jokes, but also for popularity among many electors and TV viewers, particularly after the broadcasting of two documentaries about him, at that time still a low level employee at the Retirement Office, by Fait Divers, a famous Belgian television magazine, realized in 1971 and 1972 by Jean-Jacques Péché and Pierre Manuel, Les Fonctionnaires (the Public Servants) and Week-end ou la qualité de la vie (Week end or quality of life).
Another documentary, Tel qu'en lui-même enfin (Finally as himself) was made in 1997 by the Strip Tease magazine, filmed at the peak of Demaret's political career.
[2] A corpulent man, Michel Demaret was popularly known as Dikke Mich (Fat Mike in Dutch), or Monsieur 10% (Mister 10% in French), for his reputation of taking 10% for each contract as alderman for Public Works.
This dubious reputation, also the trading mark of his political godfather Paul Vanden Boeynants, was confirmed fourteen years after his death by a court, but the contractors, his widow Francine Vereecken, his daughter and his son-in-law benefited from the prescription for corruption and whitewashing hitherto attested facts for amounts over €2.5 million.
[3] A few hours before his sudden death, in September 2000, he was controlled in a train from Zürich, the customs officers saw huge banknotes wads sticking out from his pockets, he was slightly drunk and an amount of more than 110,000 euro was found in his suitcase.