2023-06-08 05:56:51
What if this last election year was the year of seriousness? In any case PS and MR both seem to be on the offensive to demonstrate to the public that they are serious parties. They both realize that they have a credibility gap to fill.
The president’s penis
Let’s start with the MR. He is holding a very unusual event today, a press conference in the House. It is called: the MR presents its major structural reforms in terms of taxation, budget, pensions and employment. Georges-Louis Bouchez the president, will be accompanied by David Clarinval and Willy Borsus, respectively vice premier federal and Walloon.
An event which must display the priorities of the MR for the coming year before the elections and which must above all display a certain unity of the party. Objective: an attempt to return to seriousness which must make up for a major lack of credibility in public opinion. A credibility largely eroded by the communication pangs of President Georges-Louis Bouchez. The observation is now fairly widely shared in the party: The famous “stick your penis to the bar” of this pitiful reality show erases almost all the gains that the party might hope to derive from its participation in the various governments.
Visibility and credibility
The MR is no longer considered a serious party? In any case, it is less than before, that’s for sure. The “colletonzizigate” has a devastating effect because it seems to crown three years of presidential communication entirely focused on gaining visibility at all costs. It is from this point of view a total success, but gains that are made at the expense of credibility. The media image of Georges-Louis Bouchez is more of a buffoon than a liberal president.
However, from Jean Gol via Antoine Duquesne, Didier Reynders, Olivier Chastel, Louis and Charles Michel, liberal presidents have always tried to present themselves to the public as serious and pragmatic men. Since Gol, the liberals have tried to embody the seriousness of the budget, the seriousness of structural reforms, the seriousness of the economy in the face of a Walloon left considered, conversely, to be not serious, spendthrift, ideological and cut off from reality. This long tradition, this trademark is disappearing today behind the Bouchez brand which streams throughout the party. There is therefore one year to change course.
reconquest
Socialist side also we are looking for seriousness. The PS is accused, especially in the North, of being a blocking factor, of following the PTB blindly. The figure of the president does not help either. Paul Magnette did not try to stick his penis to the bar, but he spoke lightly of the disappearance of e-commerce or these “unemployed Walloons who like to enjoy life“. He is also in the process of regaining credibility.
It is in this sense that we must understand the debate following all very civilized between Philippe Close, mayor of Brussels PS and Bart de Wever, mayor of Antwerp, N-VA. In the sense that we must understand the campaign of Thomas Dermine with the Flemish bosses. Also in the sense that we must understand Karine Lalieux’s pension reform proposal.
For the coming year, the PS will seek to regain credibility, to embody seriousness in the face of a PTB who plays Robin Hood and has no vocation to govern and an MR who, according to the phrase of Paul Magnette yesterday, is “become the backbone of the federal government”.
Seriousness is precisely the strategy that François Ruffin, figure of the Nupes in France, proposed to the European left in a debate in which Paul Magnette took part a few days ago. This is what he said: “The neoliberals today are the party of disorder; and we have to present ourselves as the party of stability, the party of protection provided“.
In this last coming year, the PS will continue to play this card, to present itself as the party of seriousness once morest the MR (and also once morest the PTB); and the MR will have to counter this image by reinvesting the seriousness that its president has abandoned. Yes, seriousness may well be at the center of this 2024 campaign.
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#PSMR #battle #seriousness
