Secretary of State for Equal Opportunities Sarah Schlitz (Ecolo) should, for the time being, not resign. Schlitz was discredited because of her personal logo that had appeared on the websites of organizations that had received grants from her. N-VA asked for her resignation today, but the majority postponed a vote until next week. With this, the State Secretary seems to receive only conditional support and the file remains hanging over her head.
Earlier in the week, Schlitz had already been reprimanded by an audit committee in the Chamber. After all, if there is a subsidy with government money, the use of a politician’s personal logo is prohibited. Then the policy must be at the forefront of the message. Otherwise, there may be a hidden intention to campaign.
“Clumsiness”
Schlitz said he was not aware of any harm. In the committee, the State Secretary denied that there had been any proactive communication from her. “It’s not about anything I asked, but I should have been more attentive,” Schlitz said. The Secretary of State referred to it as “a clumsiness”.
LOOK. State Secretary Schlitz said that it was a “clumsiness”, but that turns out not to be true
However, documents show that she did in fact give the order to use her logo, ‘La Dernière Heure’ denounced today: there is talk of an extensive subsidy guide in which the organizations were explicitly asked to place her logo. Moreover, the passage had meanwhile been removed from the subsidy guide.
Member of Parliament Sander Loones (N-VA), who had previously also submitted the complaint to the control committee, reacted indignantly. “The State Secretary therefore not only violated the law, but also did not act ethically. This is about it,” he responded in the Chamber. According to opposition party N-VA, Schlitz has lost “all credibility”.
Vote on dismissal not off the table
Coup de theater then in the Chamber. After an interpellation in which Loones asked for the Secretary of State to be dismissed, the MR suddenly requested an adjournment of the session. Apparently there was no consensus within the Vivaldi majority to support Schlitz just like that.
After an interpellation, this is done in the House by submitting a simple motion, which leads to “the order of the day”. After an hour of consultation between the majority parties – it is clear that there was no unanimity – it turned out that all seven supported such a motion. But procedurally there was a catch. By not asking for the urgency of the vote, that vote cannot take place until next week.
Conditional support
So the vote is not off the table. The majority could have done that, but they didn’t. That seems to mean that Schlitz will receive some kind of conditional support, but it remains to be seen whether she has told the entire truth.
“Today we heard the explanation of the Secretary of State. If the slightest material element emerges in the coming days that confirms that she has not spoken the truth, she will have to draw the consequences”, the leaders of the PS and MR, Ahmed Laaouej and Benoît Piedboeuf, respectively, summarize. A similar explanation was also heard elsewhere within the majority.
In other words: the chair of the Secretary of State is still wavering.
New trend: personal logos as a hidden campaign tool. Ministers cut corners of the law (+)
N-VA and Vlaams Belang ask for the dismissal of State Secretary Schlitz (Ecolo) after ‘lie’ in parliament, Vooruit also reacts critically: “No more clumsiness”
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