On the occasion of his 30th birthday, which he celebrates this Sunday, Conner Rousseau, the president of Vooruit, gave an extensive interview to our colleagues from the newspaper De Zondag. If he detailed in great detail the evening he is preparing for the occasion this Monday, the leader of the Flemish socialists is also on the energy price crisis and the strikes which have shaken Belgium in recent weeks. .
Questioned about the work of the government of which he is one of the architects as president of a party of the majority, Rousseau does not hide that certain points are not in conformity with his expectations, in particular on the form. But he is keen to defend the agreements that Vivaldi has reached in recent months to help citizens in the energy crisis: “There is no country in the world that better defends the purchasing power of its citizens, not just one”he underlines before citing as an example the automatic indexation of wages, the reduction of VAT, energy checks or the increase in pensions.
For him, if the cost of living is so high at the moment, it is not the fault of the De Croo government: “That many people are worried about their bills, I understand that. But the unions are giving the wrong signal. It’s not the government that’s guilty of inflation, it’s that crazy Russian: Putin”, he declared to our Flemish colleagues before sending a spade to the PTB and the Vlaams Belang, parties of the opposition. For Rousseau, extremist parties are those which “make the most noise about the management of the country”but who “are Putin’s best friends. The PTB refuses to condemn Russia and the Vlaams Belang would even have wanted to help Putin with arms deliveries. So they had better keep quiet.”
The Flemish socialist is therefore very critical of the unions and the strike actions carried out in recent weeks. According to him, this would play into the cards of these extremist parties by contributing “to create an atmosphere in which the government would be responsible for rising bills”adding in passing that such a postulate “is just not honest.”