MR and Engagés on the way to forming a Walloon government: the Bouchez-Prévot duo imposes itself in all executives
Georges-Louis Bouchez and Maxime Prévot held a press conference this Tuesday afternoon. If there was little doubt about their common destiny, they confirmed it: it is together that they will create a government in Wallonia… and everywhere else.
Journalist in the General Editorial Office
Published on 06/11/2024 at 4:10 p.m.
Games are made. And they actually have been since Sunday. MR and the Engagés are leaving together for a government in Wallonia and the Wallonia-Brussels Federation. Ecolo having crashed, the PS having chosen the opposition, only the PTB remained. An inconceivable choice for both the right and the center.
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As usual, Georges-Louis Bouchez breaks the codes. Only 48 hours after the result of the vote, the choice of partner is made. “Unprecedented,” he congratulates himself. Bye bye also the custom which requires the winner to consult the different parties. “I had contact with my colleagues, I informed them but I think it was pointless to waste several days of consultation,” he explains.
Also at the federal level
Together. This is how the two election winners also intend to participate in the emergence of a federal majority. “We want to go up together and we make it known,” explains Georges-Louis Bouchez. The two new partners will therefore both indeed find themselves in the federal government.
In Brussels, MR and the Engagés also intend to stay together. But Georges-Louis Bouchez will keep control. It is the MR who will send the invitations, first to the Engaged. It is the MR who will consult and who will therefore be in charge of forming a majority. “The game is open,” he said, recalling that 10 seats were missing. Two options therefore emerge. Either the PS finally participates in a majority and the three parties leave together. Either the MR and the Committed must be joined by Ecolo and DéFi.
The Federal Government and Brussels will take a little longer to achieve results, but the two presidents believe they can move forward fairly quickly at the Walloon level, without being locked into a timetable. “Our wish is to be able to begin the various working groups on Monday,” explains Maxime Prévot.
Consult the field
In parallel with the meetings with the experts, field stakeholders will also be contacted. “We are convinced that if we want real change, the actors must support this change,” explains the liberal president. “We have not hidden our desire for reform and our objectives but we are listening to understand certain realities. We want all Francophones to be able to get started on a mobilizing project. »
The work of the MR and the Engagés will now be to identify their convergences, “which appear more clearly than with the other parties”, slips Georges-Louis Bouchez. The two presidents point to one that can be implemented from the start since it involves having a more limited number of ministers.
But the Walloon issues on which we must agree go well beyond: employment, health, ecological transition, governance… “Our working method is as follows: diagnosis, explanation and treatment”, summarizes Georges-Louis Bouchez. “And we must not fear the evaluation,” specifies Maxime Prévot.
No unnecessary details
All this must culminate in the drafting of a regional policy declaration. Which, they announce, will not be 352 pages long. “We don’t want to get lost in the details. And perhaps the modalities for achieving the objectives must be sufficiently flexible,” adds the president of Les Engagés.
By moving forward hand in hand, the two political parties hope to achieve greater consistency between the policies carried out in the federated entities and at the Federal level. There is no question for Bouchez of setting up something at the regional level and then deconstructing it at the Federal level.
During the last legislature, PS, Ecolo and the MR also governed together in Wallonia and at the Federal level. Which has not always been a guarantee of success. But let’s recognize an advantage for the young couple: it’s easier to live as a couple than as a couple.
