N-VA comes with a savings proposal of tens of millions of euros on the political apparatus | News

Earlier this week, Prime Minister Alexander De Croo put a number of proposals on paper to save on internal operations. These will be on the table this weekend during the budget conclave. “Symbolic proposals that would once only yield several hundred thousand euros”, according to N-VA, which itself knocked on a string of proposals. “Proposals that are to the disadvantage of the largest parties, so the N-VA cannot be blamed for making proposals out of its own interest,” it reads.

The biggest potential savings remains the complete abolition of the Senate – an intervention that, according to the N-VA, would yield 44 million euros per year. Another significant cutback can be achieved through a reduction in the number of MPs. Shrinking the Flemish Parliament from 124 to 100 MPs would bring in 5 million euros. That could increase if the same exercise is done in other assemblies, and even higher after a confederal reform the party advocates.

But these are institutionally far-reaching interventions. In addition, N-VA continues to argue for an abolition of the indexation of party grants based on the national and regional level. Because the proposal has never received a majority, the party proposes an index stop of those party grants during the rest of the legislature. This measure in itself, certainly under the current inflation, will soon yield structural savings of five million euros per year, it says. In addition, N-VA wants to abolish party grants from the provinces.

N-VA also believes that up to 20 million euros can be saved on the functioning of the cabinets, but at all levels. The party notes that the operating costs of the current government are 10 million euros higher annually than in the previous Swedish government. On Monday, the Extended Bureau of the Flemish Parliament will consider its own savings plan.

Finally, the party advocates an index jump on the remuneration of ministers and members of parliament. At the Flemish level alone, that would yield 0.5 million euros.

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