In Brussels, David Leisterh is under pressure while the blockage is total: “It is perhaps time for someone else to take on this role of trainer”

And if some still had any doubt, she went so far as to burn the lifeboats while ensuring in The evening that the N-VA defended “an independence project, racist, climate skeptic“. Groen’s environmental colleagues, who reached an agreement with four Dutch-speaking parties (Groen, N-VA, Open VLD, Vooruit) with the N-VA, will have appreciated…

The absence of a Brussels government threatens 2,700 jobs in social integration enterprises

To make matters worse, Défi, where the Maingain clan is internally opposed to this majority with the N-VA, is also showing itself more and more cautious about the prospect of participating in government.

The observation is therefore clear: the attempt by the MR and the Engagés to establish a majority with Écolo and Défi fizzled. The PS’s veto against the N-VA is not a bluff. And the Brussels negotiations, 6 months after the elections of June 9, seem more deadlocked than ever.

At the headquarters of the Brussels MR, this Thursday morning, the atmosphere mixed anger and dismay in the face of what David Leisterh considers to be an abandonment of post on the part of parties who have let the Region drift towards the budgetary abyss.

Persoons proposes a change of trainer

In the meantime, it is David Leisterh’s strategy, as well as his method, which is being called into question.

In The Morningthis Wednesday, the leader of Vooruit Ans Persoons came out of several months of media respite to unpin a grenade. “Maybe it’s time for someone else to take on this role (of trainer) for a while.” assured the socialist, suggesting naming “a mediator a little further removed from the different parties.” Information taken from those around him, the idea, in essence, is to appoint a person who knows the workings of the Region, but who is outside the current political game, possibly accompanied by a Dutch-speaking pair.

At the end of the process, Ans Persoons reassures, it is despite everything David Leisterh who must become Minister-President.

However, the question is asked. After six months of blockage, should David Leisterh hand over the reins, as is sometimes done at the Federal Government, to unblock the situation? No one, apart from Vooruit, supports this option among the negotiators.

Brussels training: David Leisterh calls for everyone’s sense of responsibility

David Leisterh and his president Georges-Louis Bouchez are organizing a press conference this Friday to counter-attack, and to discuss a disruptive approach aimed at breathing new life into the training process. According to our information, the thought of handing over, however, does not occur to the liberal, who plans to appeal to the parties’ responsibility. However, for concrete solutions to the crisis, we will have to wait…

Some see, behind the Ans Persoons interview, Ahmed Laaouej’s desire to weaken David Leisterh. With a view, ultimately, to becoming a trainer himself, then Minister President?

“Ahmed Laaouej is Rogue in Harry Potter. He has been seen as the bad guy since the start of the negotiations. But we will realize at the end of the film that he has in fact worked from the beginning to protect everyone in order to have an agreement.” points to a socialist source who rejects the idea of ​​a change of trainer. “This idea does not live with us. David Leisterh has electoral legitimacy on his side. We must not forget what he accomplished this summer, by bringing together a majority of 45 seats out of 89 in the Brussels Parliament. We remain respectful of this coupling. But it has been proven that there is no majority in Brussels to support a majority with the N-VA. It is now up to David Leisterh to demonstrate that he can bring together a majority in both linguistic roles. He could now reassess the participation of the CD&V, the veto against Ahidar etc.”

Frédéric De Gucht (Open VLD): “If we do not take budgetary measures very quickly, Brussels risks finding itself under federal supervision”

A fourth Secretary of State?

In this same interview with Morningwhich is definitely timely for the socialists, Brussels State Secretary Ans Persoons also reopens the political game, on the Dutch-speaking side, since she puts the idea of ​​creating a fourth state secretariat back on the table.

This option, and this is not trivial, could theoretically make it possible to replace the N-VA with the CD&V (Editor’s note: which refuses to join the government without being represented), and to lift the veto of the PS.

This option, like the others, faces a long series of difficulties, such as the fact that the creation of the position will require a two-thirds majority, and therefore the support, at least by abstention, of Ecolo.

“If we kick out the N-VA in Brussels, even though they played the game fairly, Bart De Wever will make us pay as soon as we ask for federal funding.”adds a liberal.

What to do, then? Some, a little in desperation, are counting on an unblocking in Brussels, after the conclusion of an agreement at federal level. We are far from it.