CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi lashes out at coalition partner N-VA. “Saying that the rest should shut up and swallow, that’s not how it works, is it”, Mahdi points out in an interview with ‘De Standaard’. He also warns against a rapprochement between the N-VA and Vooruit. “In 2024, the voter will be faced with a fundamental choice: the desouling of Flanders is at stake.”
CD&V and N-VA had turned the page after the nitrogen crisis, they said. The coalition partners, however, continue to argue. According to Sammy Mahdi, chairman of the Flemish Christian Democrats, N-VA has handled the file incorrectly. “Saying that the rest should shut up and swallow, doesn’t work that way, does it? CD&V members read that they must be destroyed. That’s not how you do politics, is it?”
It is clear: since the nitrogen crisis, the former cartel partners can drink each other’s blood. Mahdi dismisses the accusation that CD&V had gone back on previous agreements. “I have no lessons to be learned from the party that has failed us and the Michel government for a UN resolution (the Marrakesh Pact, ed.) as three hundred pass every day. We are not fighting for a symbolic file in the hope of winning the elections. We have always been constructive.”
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Do you know what makes Vlaams Belang great? A bad nitrogen agreement that offers no future
“It cannot be ruled out that after all the fuss, champagne will be drunk at Vlaams Belang in 2024,” wrote political scientist Carl Devos in his analysis after the nitrogen debalce. Mahdi disagrees. “Do you know what makes Vlaams Belang great? A bad nitrogen agreement that offers no future, ATMs that are disappearing. Areas in Limburg where you have to drive an hour to find a GP out-of-hours station. We must dare to warn that huge problems will arise if we continue like this.”
N-VA and Vooruit together, without CD&V?
In the interview with ‘De Standaard’ warns the CD&V member of a rapprochement between N-VA and Vooruit. “Nationalists and socialists find each other in the worship of the largest possible government that determines everything for you,” he says. According to him, the voter in 2024 will be faced with a “fundamental choice”. “The choice between CD&V or the N-VA-Vooruit axis. If I have to focus on it, I think that the desouling of Flanders is at stake.”
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He who makes the fewest demands may rule. I’m not participating in that
“The soul of Flanders consists of many beautiful villages and municipalities. We do not stand for an artificially created community in which we force municipalities to merge, whether people like it or not. You will not program the soul of Flanders in Excel sheets in Brussels. We believe in the power of the local, of the bottom-up organization.”
N-VA chairman Bart De Wever previously did not rule out a coalition with the socialists of Vooruit at Flemish level after the elections of 2024. The Christian Democrats risk having no place in such a government. “Is that right? Not if the voter can prevent that,” Mahdi responds. “Whoever makes the fewest demands may rule. I am not participating in that.”
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