The echoes this Sunday were not positive.
Federal formation: Arizona parties come together around Bart De Wever
Bart De Wever’s discontent
According to our information, Bart De Wever expressed his dissatisfaction to the negotiators, once again threatening to throw in the towel as a trainer. At issue: the persistent blocking of Conner Rousseau, president of Vooruit.
Conner Rouseau had already set the tone on Saturday by continuing to reject Bart De Wever’s socio-economic proposals. “The chances of reaching an agreement are low“, estimated the leader of the Flemish socialists in an interview with Newspapercriticizing Bart De Wever for not having fundamentally modified his proposals since the start of his training mission. Conner Rousseau still wants the big fortunes to contribute more to the tax effort than they currently do.
“It’s very complicated with Conner Rousseau. The reality is that he no longer wants to discuss, or even formulate his counter-proposals. He doesn’t want any new policies… And he finds pretexts to block”slips a liberal source.
“Conner Rousseau wants scorched earth“, adds another political source.
The relationship between Bart De Wever and Conner Rouseau, which was said to be very good, has deteriorated significantly. Communal negotiations strained their relations. In Ghent, socialist activists refused to govern with the N-VA…
The dissatisfaction with the latest version of the super note of the trainer, and in particular the budgetary tables, is however not limited to Vooruit. These tables are considered seriously problematic by Les Engagés, in particular with regard to health, by the Cd&V, for the tax aspect, and by Vooruit, for the relationship between revenue and budgetary savings.
“But most parties agree that the best way to improve these tables is direct negotiation in a central group between the presidents,” gives us a source from the Engagés. “There is no miracle recipe. We have to go into intensive conclave mode. But at this stage Vooruit is still not willing to do so…”
The pressure is mounting: with each month that passes without a full government, the budgetary situation continues to deteriorate, making the additional consolidation efforts to be carried out ever more important.
What if Bart De Wever resigns?
On August 22, the president of the N-VA had already submitted his resignation to the king.
The MR, who had refused the trainer’s last proposal relating to a tax on capital gains, had been singled out, but the areas of divergence were in fact broader.
Maxime Prévot took over for a conciliation mission, before Bart De Wever agreed to go out for a spin.
Will he resubmit his resignation to the King this Monday or will he manage to obtain enough certainty to continue his mission? No one could answer this question this Sunday early in the afternoon.
But a subsidiary question arises insistently: would Bart De Wever agree to return to the track a third time in a row in the event of another throw in the towel this Monday, or would this resignation signify the end of his ambitions as Prime Minister ?
“A government with the NVA will have Bart De Wever as Prime Minister“, assures a liberal source. “For now, everything depends on the relationship between Bart De Wever and Conner Rousseau.”
Federal training: bilateral news for De Wever after Rousseau’s slowdown in Arizona
The Open VLD track? Yes but no…
Unless Vooruit is replaced, at the negotiating table, by Open VLD? This path would have the advantage of being more coherent on an ideological level, since the federal government would only have right and center-right parties.
With barely 76 seats out of 150, however, such a coalition would only hold on to one seat. A single recalcitrant MP would then threaten the entire building…
In the Evening, this Saturday, the president of the Open VLD, Eva De Bleeker, did not completely rule out returning to the race to govern federally, but she does not just want to help out Arizona. “My mission is to rejuvenate the party, to straighten it out, from the opposition.”
“The time has not come for such a path: Arizona is not yet buried and everyone knows that it is the best solution. And frankly, a majority of 76 seats does not seem serious”observes a Flemish liberal source.
