“If this government does not manage to find agreements, then the extremes will only increase in 2024”, affirmed Wednesday the president of Vooruit Conner Rousseau, on the waves of the VRT (De Ochtend), by asking the partners of the Vivaldi to “put water in their wine” to reform pensions and taxation. Tuesday evening, the main ministers of the federal government, meeting in a select committee (kern) to work once once more on pension reform, left without agreement. They should have achieved it then, according to Conner Rousseau. “It’s really exaggerated”, he railed, calling once more for a reform which “rewards the work”.
In this debate where the left-right divide is reflected, “it would be very easy to blame someone”, he replied concerning this file in the hands of Minister Karine Lalieux (PS). The president of the Flemish socialists, however, does not hide the fact that Vooruit and the PS “think differently on certain points concerning pensions”, but this is the case elsewhere too, according to him. Conner Rousseau says he is upset by the absence of a tax reform project, a dossier in the hands of Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V). The recent report by Professor Mark Delanote constitutes in his eyes a good basis for work, but the MR immediately shot him down in flames. “I wonder what some are doing in government, if nothing is ever good for them. You have to be able to make concessions.”
In his eyes, the Vivaldi has done a good job in difficult circumstances during the coronavirus crisis, but the seven parties must now demonstrate that they can consolidate the welfare state. “Everyone will have to put water in their wine. If that does not succeed, some will have to look in the mirror and wonder why they are in this government, if not to have ministerial posts”.
The co-president of Groen Jeremie Vaneeckhout also deplores the government’s lack of progress. “How can we explain that, two years following the elections, in these times of crisis, no one is in a condition to govern?”, He reacted in De Ochtend. “We are living in a period where there is no shortage of challenges, we must surpass ourselves”. The Flemish ecologist says he is making this appeal to “our natural partners”, but also “to those on the other side of the table”. When asked whether it is not also Ecolo who would play the obstruction in the pension file, Mr. Vaneeckhout replies that “everyone can feel concerned”. “I notice in this file that one tries to shout louder than the other,” he added, pointing to party presidents who would maintain “a pre-election atmosphere”. “Everyone will have to be humble and work hard.”
Groen had a tussle on Tuesday with CD&V, whose chairman Sammy Mahdi described as a buzzword a proposal by Energy Minister Tinne Van der Straeten (Grone) to tax excess profits in the energy sector . Here too, Jeremie Vaneeckhout asks party presidents for a certain restraint, to let the ministers do their job. He underlined that this dossier would come up once more when the budget was discussed.
