For five days today, Russian forces, commanded by Vladimir Putin, invaded Ukraine. ” Initially, we are talking regarding a minority of Russians in the Donbass and in the end we end up with an invasion of the whole of Ukraine “, begins Georges-Louis Bouchez. ” The United States had the best intelligence. What is incomprehensible is when they had the information, they made it known that they would not send troops before the Russian invasion. So they left Putin in no doubt that he might go. As for Europeans, I think it has become a tradition to be naive. In our strategic choices in recent years, whether in terms of militarization or energy, there are colossal errors that have been made “A backlash
Faced with this international conflict, Europe has decided to take unprecedented sanctions once morest Russia. Sanctions that many considered too late, but which are totally justified according to Georges-Louis Bouchez. ” First of all, we need a gradation in the sanctions, because we must not contribute to an escalation ourselves. These sanctions go very quickly and show a great reaction from Europe. Finally, Putin had the impact of waking up NATO and the EU. I think that the European leaders are completely on board, but the problem is that we find ourselves faced with someone whose rationality we question and that is the whole difficulty .”
Among the major sanctions, we can notably cite the isolation of Russia on the world financial markets. By first depriving Russian banks of the Swift financial transaction platform and then paralyzing the Russian Central Bank. Strong measures which will undeniably have a negative impact on Europe, with a rise in energy prices, but which above all remain essential. ” Everyone around Putin needs to realize that Russia has absolutely nothing to gain from this war. For example, all the luxury apartments of the ruling class on the Côte d’Azur or in Paris must be eliminated. They must realize the difficulties that will befall them. Just by taking these sanctions it will have an impact on our country, but it must be done whatever the cost. To defend oneself, it will be necessary to work fiscally because in the best of cases, this crisis will have a significant economic impact and consequences on households. Our role is to limit these as much as possible without lying to the population. It is imperative to stop Putin in Ukraine because if he manages to get what he wants, it is the whole of world security that is threatened with a series of other countries at the gates of the EU “, warns the president of MR.
Towards maintaining nuclear power?
Today, 40% of gas in Europe is directly imported from Russia. Belgium is no exception and is still struggling to be energy independent. Therefore, the solution is all found for Georges-Louis Bouchez: we must postpone the exit from nuclear power. On March 18, the federal government will have to vote for a complete or partial exit from nuclear power. In this regard, at Ecolo, which votes for a complete end to nuclear power, Georges Gilkinet argued that nuclear energy might be dangerous and serve as a weapon, unlike the wind and the sun. Words that particularly annoyed the leader of the reformers. ” I find that in these troubled times, creating confusion among the population regarding civil nuclear power – which allows us to heat ourselves – and military nuclear power, is outrageous. People are already so scared and to believe that a nuclear power plant can be used to create a missile is unworthy “, he advances.
” Relations with Russia are not going to get better in the future, we have a different way of seeing the world (…) I am saddened to have to come to such an extreme situation that finally some people say to themselves that there was perhaps some truth regarding the problem of energy autonomy (…) 100% renewable is impossible, we need a permanent source of energy. It is true that Belgium has a renewable energy capacity which is higher than what is exploited today, but it is limited. We don’t have mountains or thousands of kilometers of coastline or even sunshine which is set to increase. Even if we wanted 100% renewable energy, it wouldn’t be available before 2050 and what would we do until then? That doesn’t hold up (…) I don’t think nuclear power is the 8th wonder of the world, but today it’s the solution to limit our CO2 emissions, to guarantee our independence and to guarantee a reduction in price. Every day we wait makes the situation in Belgium much more complicated “.
Georges-Louis Bouchez sees no “rational” argument today for stopping nuclear power. ” Is Ecolo ready to pull the plug on a government in such troubled times just to enforce a dogma? The MR will fight and take all necessary actions to protect the interests of the country. And it’s clearly not to increase our dependence on Russian gas. If we want to use gas from another country, we have to go get it in Qatar when the Ecolos didn’t even want us to go and play football there. So should we stop negotiating with Putin to negotiate with Qatar? Or import shale gas from the United States when we refuse to produce it in Europe? ThoseIt’s good to vote on decisions in the European Parliament, but if you really want to be effective, you have to be energetically independent, have a military force and know the balance of power. That’s how the world and Putin works today.”