75 years of NATO: Alexander De Croo recalls his own party’s position in plenary
Prime Minister Alexander De Croo wants to reach the NATO standard of 2% of gross domestic product (GDP) devoted to Defense from 2029, and not in 2035, as provided for in the agreement reached within his government.
Published on 04/04/2024 at 4:30 p.m.
The liberal confirmed that this was the position of his party, the Open Vld, causing a certain surprise within the opposition, but also on certain benches of the majority.
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The Prime Minister was questioned Thursday in the plenary session of the House on the 75th anniversary of NATO. He took the opportunity to recall the position of the Flemish liberals on this subject.
The fact that the Prime Minister explicitly refers to his own party’s position during the question session is quite unusual. “The fact that the Prime Minister uses the platform to speak about his own party is unprecedented and shows that he did not speak on behalf of the entire government,” reacted the leader of the N-VA group, Peter De Roover (opposition). In his view, Mr De Croo violated the code of ethics for ministers that the government recently introduced, which stipulates that “each member of the government must work according to the general rule of consensus”.
The declaration also provoked reactions in the majority. “An MP questions the government to find out the government’s position. Question time is not a party congress,” said a majority MP, describing the incident “a bit bizarre”.
