The MR “reaffirms its commitment to respect without exception all the provisions adopted in the charters of democracy and the code of good conduct between democratic parties once morest formations or parties which manifestly carry ideologies or proposals likely to attack the democratic principles that underpin our political system”, he said on Saturday, the day following the storm caused by the debate, on the VRT, between the president of the French-speaking liberals, Georges-Louis Bouchez and the leader of Vlaams Belang, Tom Van Grieken.
The MR, however, considers “necessary to deepen these texts by integrating the new threats that weigh on our democracies, namely right and left extremism, religious radicalism and populism of all kinds.”
“It is also useful to integrate into these texts the new realities due to the emergence of new means of communication”, continues the party which therefore proposes to all the French-speaking democratic parties to work in this direction.
“It would also be beneficial in a second time to exchange with the Dutch-speaking democratic parties on these scourges for our democracy and our country”, add the liberals. “These troubled times demand of us the greatest unambiguous mobilization once morest the enemies of democracy”, they conclude.
Friday, the PS, Ecolo and the Engagés had estimated that a “red line had been crossed” by Georges-Louis Bouchez following his debate, the day before, with the president of Vlaams Belang in the program Terzake on the Flemish public channel.
The three French-speaking parties therefore asked the “authorized authorities of the MR” to “clarify” their position “by Monday noon”, as to the commitment of the Reform Movement in relation to a charter signed in 2002, reaffirming the principle of the cordon sanitary. The latter is accompanied by a 16-point code of good conduct, ” once morest formations or parties which manifestly carry ideologies or proposals likely to attack the democratic principles on which our political system is founded”.
The 11th point of this code stipulates that one must “refuse to participate in any television or radio debate in which a representative from these formations or parties would participate”.