The date of November 7, 2024 will remain engraved in Walloon political history textbooks. Refusing to ally itself with the liberal Mons en Mieux list, led by Georges-Louis Bouchez, the Mons PS chose to open its majority to Écolo… and to the PTB. A first in Wallonia.
However, the PS did not need the PTB numerically. With 22 seats, it only needed one to obtain a majority. Ecolo’s two seats could have been enough. By integrating the PTB and its 4 seats, Nicolas Martin secures a majority of 28 seats.
An act that goes beyond Mons
For a long time, the PS castigated the attitude of the PTB. “Every time we proposed to the PTB to participate in power, they hid under the table, preferring to lecture the opposition”launched Paul Magnette during a televised debate, even describing them as… “idiots”.
But the situation has changed. The emergence of a center-right “Azur” axis, associating Les Engagés and the MR, has changed the position of the PS.
And Nicolas Martin explained on Matin Première that the attitude of the Communist Party had evolved: “The PTB that I had in front of me was moderate, constructive and responded to the prerequisite that I set: the need for dynamic economic development based on the creation of private activity. And on the desire to have a rigorous and serious budgetary policy.”
The reasons for such a choice
Nicolas Martin had affirmed it: given the Mons context, it was out of the question to integrate “Mons en Mieux” into the majority, describing Georges-Louis Bouchez’s campaign as “odious”. In the inner circle, some also see in this new strategy of the PS a way of dampening the PTB and preventing it from practicing a “hard” opposition, a trademark of the Marxists. A strategy which was not unanimously supported by the PS office this Monday.
A tripartite also allows Nicolas Martin to ensure a comfortable majority and not run the risk of a fragile majority being broken by the defection of two elected officials.
Finally, the mayor of Mons did not hide the fact that he would have preferred, the day after the election, to form a coalition with Les Engagés and Écolo. But according to him, the centrists “closed the door to a coalition of which Écolo would be part”, adding that Les Engagés “were amazed” in Mons en Mieux.
Words that made Maxime Prévot, the president of Les Engagés, jump. “Nicolas Martin, aware of the sulfurous association that he will promote in the fourth Walloon city with the PTB alongside Ecolo, is now looking for culprits.he launched on the social network
The mayor of Namur also threw a wrench in the pond by asserting that the Mons PS had blackmailed regional subsidies: “When our local head of the list was told by the mayor that he was asking, to welcome the majority of us with him, for letters from our ministers committing to continuing to finance the projects of Mons, we understood that the old political practices were still on the agenda…”
The “coalition of shame”
On the MR side, Georges-Louis Bouchez believes that the cordon santé vis-à-vis the PTB “was broken” and that Mons will be led… by a “coalition of shame” : “Losers who associate themselves with communists and who will complete the ruin of working women and men.”he said to X. “This red line crossed cannot remain without consequences. The same people who constantly talk about populism associate themselves with the worst populists… As a politician, I will lead the fight. As a citizen of Mons, I am ashamed today that my city is reconnecting with an ideology that has caused 100 million deaths in history. While the Mayor had the opportunity to grasp our outstretched hand, he preferred confrontation and the ruin of the City…”
Ultimately, the Montois municipal college will be made up of eight aldermen. Six positions will go for the PS, one for the PTB and the last for Écolo. At the PTB, Céline De Bruyn won the aldermanship for housing, youth, equal opportunities and early childhood. The oldest will remember that after the experimental merger of the communes in 1971, Mons had already included the communist senator René Noël (PC) in its college.
Municipalities and provinces: repercussions to expect?
Will there be other majorities combining the PS and the PTB? In Brussels, the game remains open. The PS is discussing with the PTB in Molenbeek and Forest, as well as in Schaerbeek. In the latter commune, the PS and the MR obtained the same number of seats, but the liberals refuse to allow the PS candidate, Hasan Koyuncu, to take the mayorate.
In Wallonia, the situation is different. The majority pacts must be submitted to the general director of each commune by November 11, and the provincial majorities must be established by the 15th. In the provinces of Hainaut and Liège, tripartites were envisaged, but the MR would have asked the Engaged not to take the PS on board.
Maxime Prévot, however, is cautious: “I confirm that to date, a priori, in the general rather than partisan interest, I favor a tripartite approach in the two largest provinces in view of the reforms to come”he explains to us. “The height of view is more important than calculations of mandates. But the attitude of each person will obviously be decisive […] and the jump to the PS PTB in Mons is very challenging. Especially since he could achieve a majority only with Ecolo and without the PTB. It is therefore an alliance desired and not imposed.”
