2023-10-10 12:54:00
While all eyes were on the Chamber where Alexander De Croo delivered his government declaration, the neighboring Senate met this Tuesday to begin its annual session. A session during which the office and the presidency are elected. An institutional meeting traditionally with very little media coverage.
Except that this Tuesday’s session promised to be more eventful than other years. And for good reason, it was rumored, shortly before the session, that the co-opted Flemish senator Bert Anciaux (Vooruit) was considering submitting his candidacy for this position of president of the assembly. A position however devolved in the majority agreement at the Open VLD and which was awarded to Stéphanie D’Hose.
“I’m amazed”
Shortly before the opening of the session, several deputies confirmed this rumor to us. “I just found out. I’m amazed”declared a senator upon her arrival.
“That’s what I heardreacted hotly to France Masai, head of the Ecolo-Groen group in the Senate. It’s not planned, it’s a surprise. The president has our confidence. I don’t see why that should change.“She cannot explain Bert Anciaux’s decision.”I am happy to hear it. This will give him the opportunity to explain himself“, she expressed just before entering the hemicycle.
Coup de bluff
As soon as the plenary session began, the Flemish senator directly asked to speak. “I believe that the president of the assembly must be a person supported 100% by parliamentarians. I also find that the mandate of president should not be something that one brags regarding at the party level. In the context of this last year of the legislature, it is important that parliamentarians can express their vote in complete openness.” he said before finally reversing his intentions and not presenting his candidacy.
“When we want to break with tradition – the fact that a president is appointed for a legislature -, if we want to fight once morest this to defend the principle of freedom, we are subject to strong pressure. My wife advised me not to apply because of the pressure put on me. But I hope that the rule that others decide our presidency will no longer apply in the future.”
Latifa Gahouchi, president of the PS group in the Senate, then reacted: “You will thank your wife for this advice. Sometimes it is better to step back to jump better.”
In January 2022, Bert Anciaux reacted to the proposal from the president of the Senate Stéphanie D’Hose herself and the president of the Open VLD, Egbert Lachaert, to abolish the upper house, “as it exists today “. “A populist debate”retorted the Flemish senator in an interview with Knack.
Follow the Senate session below:
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