2023-05-15 17:26:00
In Bart De Wever’s analysis, the PS appears to be the unavoidable party in the 2024 elections. . It is well known, the two parties are the best friends-enemies. “We are good friends because we don’t agree on anything”, N-VA MP Sander Loones recently explained to us.
Sander Loones, the N-VA sniper: “Belgium has a problem, it helps those who do less and pulls down those who go up”
But is the PS ready, as the president of the nationalists implies, to accept a confederal model with a minor central state? In the summer of 2020, Paul Magnette and Bart de Wever were not far from an agreement, says Wouter Verschelden in his book The Gravediggers of Belgium. According to the Flemish journalist, the two party presidents had found common ground on a form of confederalism which would involve a decentralization of powers into three federal states.
Asked about this on Monday, the Socialist Party completely refutes this option. “I invite the president of the N-VA not to take his dreams for realities”objects Ahmed Laaouej, president of the Brussels PS, who evokes a “very clear attempt at manipulation by Bart De Wever”. For the PS, “confederalism is certainly not an option” since he is “the antechamber of separatism”. Socialists defend “mature federalism”which goes through a “strengthening collaboration between the federal government and the federated entities”.
A Belgium with four regions? This is not the project. The priority for the PS is to have “a government as far to the left as possible”which will allow “to ensure economic redeployment”to do “advancing rights and freedoms” and of “preserve a democratic state”, continues the leader of the Socialists in the House. But certainly not to defend a project “which would lead to the destruction of the federal state”.
On Monday, the mayor of Antwerp also said that he “didn’t like it too much” Georges Louis Bouchez. These attacks are “child games”sweeps the president of the MR who prefers to concentrate on “the construction of real projects”. These criticisms would in any case not prevent the MR from going up to the federal level with the N-VA.
“Who else could they do it with? With PS? With Ecolo who does not want nuclear power? They need partners. Just read our program, the MR is the party with which it is most suitable to collaborate”, decides the liberal. However, there is no question for the Belgians of accepting confederalism. “The MR has always been very clear on this. We are against the multiplication of ministers which would only entail additional expenditure for the State. We are advocating for a more financially efficient model. The will of the MR is to move towards a refederalization of powers, which implies more accountability and a reduction in the number of political representatives.
Bart De Wever on Georges-Louis Bouchez: “He says and imagines so many things, I don’t really like him”
For Georges-Louis Bouchez, Bart De Wever’s statements are “quibbles to get people talking about him”. “All that is electoral posturing. Does Bart De Wever want to raise taxes? Does he want to increase the number of ministers in Belgium? After a reform of the state, it will take several years before the separation of powers is applied. What competence does he want to see regionalised? Taxation ? The climate ? Justice ? The police ? Does Bart De Wever really think that drug trafficking will decrease in his city if we give more power to the Flemish police? When we see its security record in Antwerp, we say to ourselves that granting more autonomy to Antwerp would not necessarily be the solution”gun the Montois, recalling that the mayor of Antwerp had been “the first to call in the federal police” when the situation got out of hand.
Bart De Wever is a very intelligent person. He speaks Latin very well, but mathematics is not his strong point.”
And on the proposal to create a mini-cabinet to manage the country during the negotiations for the formation of the future government? “Bart De Wever is a very intelligent person. He masters Latin very well, but mathematics is not his strong point. If he does not have 76 deputies who support his idea within the coalition, he cannot do anything. At MR, we prefer a government with maxi-ambitions rather than mini-cabinets.”
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