According to N-VA chairman Bart De Wever, all parties have a lot to offer: “I can name names of members of parliament who left with hundreds of thousands of euros” | Instagram VTM NEWS

According to the N-VA chairman, the benefits that emerged last week are a remnant of a disproportionate exit culture. “Until recently, politicians could leave with hundreds of thousands of euros in exits. All parties, including those that are stiff with indignation today, have done so. There are leaders, even MPs you’ve never heard of, who left with hundreds of thousands of euros,” it sounds.

De Wever therefore advocates an independent investigation. If it turns out that these allowances are illegal, every euro must be paid back, he believes. Yet he does not want to target the few, such as Herman De Croo (Open Vld) or fellow party member Siegfried Bracke. “If people say ‘it’s unethical and that has to be paid back’, then everyone who has spent such enormous amounts of money in recent years has to pay it all back. I don’t think that’s realistic,” said De Wever.

LOOK. The integral conversation with Bart De Wever about the pension dispute

N-VA parliamentary group leader Peter De Roover said earlier in the day, in a dabat during De Zevende Dag (Eén) with PVDA chairman Raoul Hedebouw and Groen MP Kristof Calvo, that “if necessary, an investigative committee should be started.” Hedebouw repeated that the system does not come from senior civil servants, but rather from the then Quaestors who wondered: “How are we going to circumvent the Wijninckx law – which imposes a maximum for pensions?”

De Roover agreed that the mechanisms are ‘political’, as they were elaborated by the Quaestors at the time. “A line in the budget is not a safe conduct to circumvent the Wijninckx law,” said the N-VA party chairman, who believes that everything should be sorted out. “If the system is illegal, it must be stopped and the amounts recovered. If the system turns out to be legal, it must stop,” said De Roover, who believes that an investigation committee should be started if necessary.

Kristof Calvo thinks that parliament should have been aware of the extra pension for former Presidents of the House. That it knew nothing makes it all worse for him. At the same time, he pleaded for looking ahead: for example, the statute for members of parliament should be reformed; abolished the tax-free portion of parliamentary wages; the extras for special features stopped; and the severance payment activated.

How much did De Croo and Bracke receive? Year after year it was simply in the budget of the House (+)

OUR OPINION. “How can you try to abolish privileged pension regimes that are no longer up to date, if politics still finds a loophole for itself?”(+)