MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez urges the federal government to urgently tackle our country’s budget deficit. According to him, the budgetary situation is “dramatic”. That is what the French-speaking liberal said at VTM NEWS, where he was critical of the role of Prime Minister De Croo (Open Vld). “If you’re captain of the boat, you can’t say the situation is dramatic and then not change direction.”
IBB
Mar 19 2023
Latest update:
14:14
The federal core cabinet will meet on Sunday afternoon in the context of budget control. According to Bouchez, Belgium’s budgetary situation is “dramatic” and our budgetary parameters are “even worse than those of Greece”, “but only the MR is right on the table”. “The prospects are terrible, but nobody feels the urgency. Not on a political level, but not enough among the population either,” it sounded.
It bothers him that alarm bells are not ringing with many politicians and that some politicians even deliberately look away. “The only solution is to implement reforms, but the PS does not want that. And I think there are others around the table who do not want to confront the PS with this.”
The latter is a sneer at Prime Minister Alexander De Croo and State Secretary for the Budget Alexia Bertrand (Open Vld). According to Bouchez, the two say that the “situation is dramatic”, but they have not yet chosen a clear direction. “You have to dare to make decisions. This is not a talking club,” says Bouchez, who calls on De Croo to take his responsibility. “If you’re captain of the boat, you can’t say the situation is dramatic and then not change direction.”
Peteghem proposal “good basis”
Bouchez insists on reforms, but does not want to take any steps with the tax reform of Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) as long as pensions and the labor market have not been reformed. “If we don’t reform pensions and the labor market first, we won’t do tax reform. Otherwise it is a project where workers pay for other workers. We want to put those who are not working to work,” he said. “The fiscal reform must be financed by reforms.”
The MR chairman also has problems with the increase in the securities tax and a number of other measures from Van Peteghem’s plan “which would stifle investment in Belgium”, although he called the proposal as a whole a “good basis”. The CD&V minister wants to get his plan through parliament before the summer so that the reforms can take effect on 1 January 2024.
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