This is what she said in an interview with Newspaper of West Flanders. She emphasizes, however, that the differences between the parties are significant and that Vooruit does not intend to give in on its core issues, namely purchasing power and health care.
“There is little chance that Vooruit will enter a federal government,” Vooruit leader and candidate Conner Rousseau said last week. The socialists do not see the point of entering a government with the N -VA, the CD&V, the MR and Les Engagés, for the moment the most logical federal coalition, because these parties “want to pursue policies diametrically opposed to those of Vooruit “If it is to save money”. health care, they shouldn’t even call us,” he added.
CD&V and Les Engagés have, however, already indicated that they do not want to reduce the public health budget either. The latter party even pleads in favor of substantial additional investments and pushes for the creation of an axis with Vooruit and CD&V. “If three parties say the same thing on health, I think we need to hear it,” remarked leader Jean-Luc Crucke on Wednesday/yesterday.
Furthermore, Vooruit gave its authorization on Wednesday/yesterday to begin Flemish negotiations with the N-VA and the CD&V. The party also appears ready to act at the federal level. In the Newspaper of West Flanders, President Melissa Depraetere said it was conceivable that her party could enter a federal government with its Flemish coalition partners, the MR and Les Engagés. “As long as the content is adequate. Is this an obvious composition? No. The substantive differences between these parties are quite significant. But I think we should try.”
“Georges-Louis Bouchez is absolutely unreliable,” asserts Melissa Depraetere
The party does not want to give in on its essential points, warns Depraetere. “The focus must be on strengthening purchasing power and we are not going to cut health care. It has to be clear from the start,” she says. “We will propose priorities, as we did in Vivaldi. Maybe each party should do this: put forward a few points and, for the rest, give each other something. This is how we can succeed, in my opinion”.
Melissa Depraetere does not think that the PS, which lost the elections in French-speaking Belgium and decided to put itself in opposition everywhere, will reappear on the federal scene in a few months anyway. “I spoke with (president) Paul Magnette and he was reasonably convinced of his position. The PS does not lose that much per se, but there is a clear center-right choice in Wallonia. It is courageous that the PS recognizes this. But that doesn’t make our job any easier.”
Finally, the president of Vooruit prefers Bart De Wever, president of the N-VA, to Georges-Louis Bouchez, president of the MR, for rue de la Loi 16: “I prefer everyone in Bouchez,” she says. “Boucherz put a spoke in Vivaldi’s wheels for four years. I haven’t forgotten it. Last weekend, Depraetere had already described the president of the MR as “totally untrustworthy” in an interview with De Tijd.
