Maxime Prévot, president of Les Engagés, was the guest of Fabrice Grosfilley this Tuesday on Bel RTL. He said he was very concerned regarding the crisis affecting Belgians today and believed that the authorities were not doing enough.
“I accuse these governments of failing to assist anyone in danger. When we see that 40% of our citizens are at risk of falling into precariousness, that today we already have 2 out of three Belgian citizens who deprive themselves of leisure, of culture, simply to be able to still have sufficient means for heating, lighting or food. When we see the number of independents who are on the brink of going bankrupt. Shopkeepers and restaurateurs are forced to close shop for a few days and eventually have to have a second job to make ends meet. Yes, today there is a major societal shock brewing, and I find that the government’s reaction is not up to the challenges”.
What would you have done if you had been in power and had, for example, the energy portfolio?
“Capping gas prices to halve or even triple household and business bills now.”
And the state would pay the difference? Doesn’t this risk putting the state even more in debt?
“Yes, but we must have a discourse of truth vis-à-vis the citizens. We are living in an extremely serious period, with a context of war. We therefore need measures that are a real shock to be able to reduce and make sustainable the household bills, the bills of single-parent families, retirees, workers who can no longer cope, companies so that there are not a lot of bankruptcies and therefore additional unemployment. there will be temporarily increased government indebtedness, but there will be no miracle solution other than that. It will always cost less to go into debt now temporarily to get through the crisis rather than letting it do its thing and to have following costs that will explode.”
You are mayor of Namur: municipal finances are also suffering?
“All the finances of cities and towns are tipping over into the red, because we have, in particular with the explosion of indexation – and that’s very good for the purchasing power of citizens – but it’s millions of euros of additional costs for the municipalities. Of course, indexing is necessary in order to be able to help citizens to be able to assume their bills and their costs. I am simply saying that we must be clear-sighted: these explosions of successive indexations at a frantic pace, with the inflationary context, with the explosion of energy costs, it is difficult for households and businesses, but it is also difficult for local public authorities which are going into the wall.
Does that mean we’re going to have to raise taxes?
“I don’t think we have this ability because increasing taxes when people are already struggling to have sufficient means for food or heating is not the right solution. On the other hand, we have to be lucid , it will be necessary at some point for powers such as the Walloon region, the federal government even more, to really assume the successive and constant burdens which, at some point, are dried up, and no one wants to have to switch to redundancy plans, but if in the years to come, there is not at some point a streamlining of federal responsibilities with regard to the municipalities, and the support that is provided by the regions, then the municipal powers will really be in trouble”.
