“If a bloc of three parties emerges the day after the elections and speaks with one voice in the negotiations, wouldn’t that be the best protection against the extreme right?” Bodson said in the newspaper ‘Le Soir’. “They would send an important message, and the fear would change camps.”
According to Bodson, there are major common points in the three party programs, such as the defense of wage indexation, reduction of working hours, refinancing of social security and taxation of the large wealth.
Bodson does not comment on whether the formation of such a bloc should be made public before the elections. “But it would be good if the three parties did not waste their time during the campaign by criticizing each other. They should focus on the right, on the liberals, on N-VA and so on.”
We must listen to everyone, without dogma
“The ball is in the court of PS and Ecolo,” says Raoul Hedebouw. “Are they ready to make a break with the liberal politics in which everything is left to the market? Are they ready to bring the retirement age back to 65? Are they ready to get out of the wage freeze they have been imposing for five years?”
MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez has also responded in his speech to the party’s congress. He talks about an “unemployment coalition”. “We must listen to everyone, without dogma,” Bouchez said. “Thierry recommends a coalition of PS, Ecolo and PVDA. In Belgium, a name is often given to coalitions. I don’t want a coalition of unemployment, of failure, of the worst.”
Bouchez says he wants to create a coalition of optimism, based on common sense, measure and balance.