N-VA president and federal trainer Bart De Wever promised his supporters at the N-VA New Year’s reception in Mechelen yesterday/Saturday “concrete community progress” from the Arizona government he is trying to form with the MR, Les Engagés, Vooruit and the CD&V. “We are ready to govern this country if the continued construction of Flanders’ autonomy is not a taboo subject,” he said.
De Wever refuses to be “powerless like the captain of the Titanic” and assures that he will not manage the federal government without “community progress”
The president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, dampened these hopes in the Sunday edition of ‘Septième jour’. More autonomy for the federal states is, according to him, “not very compatible with the consolidation of nearly 20 billion” euros to be implemented by the new government. “The socio-economic reforms are so heavy that if we add an exercise of autonomy, the project becomes so big that we cannot go all the way.
For Mr. Bouchez, this socio-economic exercise must first take place, after which there could be room “for a discussion on a more efficient functioning of the State”: “We agree to say that the “The State must be more efficient, with fewer elected officials and fewer structures. We can reform institutions without reforming communities,” he declared. “I am attached to Belgium, which is today a federal state. Dividing for the sake of dividing is useless.”
Federal negotiations: For Raoul Hedebouw, Arizona is “a coalition of thugs”
According to Peter De Roover, Speaker of the House and leader of the N-VA, these are “terminology games”. “I think that any reform which does not further strengthen the federal states is only a half-solution. Mr De Roover agrees with Mr Bouchez that socio-economic reforms are a priority and that parties in power cannot therefore get lost in long community negotiations “It would be irresponsible, the prosperity of all Belgians is really at stake today, we cannot play with that.
De Roover and Bouchez also agree that on January 31, we will know whether the Arizona government will be in place or not. The negotiators themselves brought this date forward to the end of last month. “If we’re not there by then, there’s no point,” Mr. Bouchez said. “All the ingredients are here. Either we start cooking now or they will be late.
