2023-09-29 16:04:00
New green light for the dismantling of the Palais du Midi. This Friday, the Brussels Parliament, in plenary session, approved the accelerated urban planning procedure. As part of the metroification of the line between Albert and Brussels-North, the construction site was stopped following waterproofing problems encountered under the vast palace.
”The metro construction site has been at a standstill for two years. Two years ! The construction site must resume as quickly as possible,” commented Secretary of State, Ans Persoons (Vooruit). In the spring, the government approved the choice of dismantling the Palace, which should allow work to continue inside the Palace. Only the walls will remain, the machines will then take place in the stripped-down building.
To save time on time-consuming town planning procedures, an accelerated procedure was decided, and has just been officially approved at the end of a rowdy parliamentary session.
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“Heritage disaster”
In the hemicycle, the opposition did not pull its punches. Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène criticizes a “heritage disaster”, “catastrophic management” and an “economic and social destruction of the neighborhood”. For him, it is not a question of “dismantling” but of “pure and simple destruction”.
The PTB speaks of “political incompetence” and speaks of a “red carpet for private consortiums”. Victoria Austraet (independent) even compares the metro project to the Concorde “fiasco”.
For David Weytstman (MR), this order “masks the errors made by the government” and exposes itself to time-consuming appeals. “If we are here today, if the situation is so serious, it is also the result of your decision to entrust the management of this project to a government comprising environmentalists, who have always expressed opposition to the development of the metro . Since the start of this legislature, the Minister of Mobility has counted the delays,” denounced David Weytsman.
“People are not idiots,” retorted the former secretary of state turned MP Pascal Smet (Vooruit) when speaking of the MR. “They know that the MR was in power in the City of Brussels at the time of crucial decisions, via the aldermen of Urban Planning and Mobility (Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène and Els Ampe, between 2012 and 2018, Editor’s note)”, a- he recalled. The spike made Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène jump, who claims to have always shown his concerns regarding the route. “The government responded at the time to the City that everything was under control and that there were no problems, and that everything would be completed on time.”
Pro-metro like the MR, Les Engagés support the accelerated procedure but criticize, through the voice of Christophe De Beukelaer, the government for having “spended lavishly for five years”.
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Ecolo still shoots the metro
For the PS, Fadila Laanan supported the project. “We want to move as quickly as possible, resolve the situation, have this metro line and ensure that residents, merchants and users of the neighborhood are no longer impacted like today.” This accelerated procedure will, according to the Anderlechtoise, save time and money and is therefore the best route.
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It is not defensible to have spent a billion euros without improving service to users
Within the majority, however, not everyone has the same enthusiasm. “There is no financing solution,” insisted Isabelle Pauthier (Ecolo), member of the majority, recalling her fierce opponent of metro 3 and other potential extensions. “It is not defensible to have spent a billion euros without improving service to users,” she denounced, announcing that she would abstain from the vote. At Défi, abstention also. For his part, Groen reiterated his reluctance while contributing his votes. “This is the best, or at least the least worst, situation,” noted Arnaud Verstraete.
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