The Walloon Minister-President, Elio Di Rupo, will give his speech on the state of Wallonia this Wednesday. For Étienne de Callataÿ, received this morning on the program “Il faut qu’on parle” on DH Radio, the least we can write is that the situation is not rosy in the south of the country… The economist mentions a clearly negative picture.
“I think that there was not a clear enough speech on the gravity of the situation, the extent of the efforts”, estimates Étienne de Callataÿ. “We can’t hope that things will get much better quickly in Wallonia. And the best indicator for that, or the most… terrifying, is the level of education in French-speaking Belgium. With what the PISA surveys of the For example, it is completely illusory to hope that Wallonia can catch up with Flanders…”
And the economist to continue: “There are none of the miracle solutions, but I would have liked a more truthful speech on the state of the situation, not hopeless, but I think it is by recognizing the seriousness of the situation that we can more mobilize and inspire.”
Glancing in the rearview mirror, Étienne de Callataÿ has not forgotten the speech at the time of Laurette Onkelinx, “who told us that we were all going to be bilingual in 2000… We are in 2022, that’s 22 years older later than the goal we had set ourselves. And I think it is better that we do not do the test, because we would be horrified.”
Asked regarding the ecological transition, the economist, on the other hand, was less worried regarding Wallonia than for Flanders, believing that the first city is ready to cope and is less exposed.
“I would be Flemish, I think I would worry more regarding it. Why? Look at Flanders, which owes part of its wealth to Antwerp and Zaventem, these are not activities promised a priori to the most beautiful of futures. There is petrochemical activity in Antwerp, it is not necessarily very promising, industrial farming very present in Flanders and which poses serious problems. Wallonia will not have these problems.
What regarding Walloon finances? Faced with the finding that the debt would reach 45 billion in 2024 with unchanged policies, de Callataÿ agrees “we must conduct a policy of budgetary prudence, because the word ‘austerity’ is banned.
If you want to keep your destiny in your own hands, you don’t want to be hostage to the rating agencies, which (editor’s note, if applicable) will demote you and therefore make you have to pay more on your debt. Already, the recent news on interest rate hikes is not very good, even less for those who are in debt, especially Wallonia.
