After the failure of the left-wing parties in the last elections, how will the PTB behave against the future Walloon government? Germain Mugemangango, re-elected to the Walloon parliament, explains that the PTB will continue to fight for the important points, which they supported during the campaign, such as “the return of the pension at 65, the release of salaries to allow increases salaries”.
The MP is also worried about the policy of a future government involving the MR and Les Engagés. “I have no problem with better managing public finances. And I invite the MR and Les Engagés to question the millions that we give to large companies without conditions,” he declares. On the reduction of health care funding, Mugemangango is clear: “it doesn’t make sense”. This is also a point of division between the two partners. “The Engaged have a real problem. They ran a campaign saying they were going to be the party of health care. But the MR does not hide its desire to save money in health care,” he adds, assuring that the PTB will remain firm on preserving health care.
On the general failure of the left, Germain Mugemangango affirms that “the PTB saves the left”. Despite this, he believes that the PTB “extended its hand too much to the PS and Ecolo”. “We may have made it clear to certain voters who are very angry about the PS that we supported their record, even though it is on the right. Their record is to have blocked salaries, to force people to work longer. It’s a bad record. Maybe we made people believe that we agreed with them when that was not the case,” he explains. “We helped people believe that Les Engagés and the MR were a factor of change.”
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He also returns to the relationship between the PTB, the PS and Ecolo and the navel-gazing side of the French-speaking left. “The PS spent its entire campaign bashing the PTB so we defended ourselves a lot in relation to that. Maybe we should have gotten out of this debate.” “We are for collaboration with PS and Ecolo,” he adds, specifying that this collaboration must focus on very clear points.
Watch the full interview in the video at the top of the article.
