From “deception” to “anti-Azur” solution
For a long time, the PS ostracized Raoul Hedebouw’s party, considering, in its speeches, that it was not credible. “The PTB is the biggest political deception we have ever had,” Paul Magnette, the president of the PS, even explained to us in September 2023. “Until now they have never done anything. They’ve been around for 40 years, they’ve never done anything and I don’t think they’ll ever do anything.”
A speech which today seems outdated. “We must distinguish the time of the campaign from the post-electoral period, which can be marked by a different discourse”immediately reminds political scientist Benjamin Biard. “Presumably, there is on the one hand the desire to put the PTB in power by forcing it to take its responsibilities, and perhaps hoping to get the chestnuts out of the fire during the next elections. The second element is to be able to bypass the block formed by the MR and the Engagés. Even if this possible double strategy carries a risk for the PS: on the one hand being singled out for having made a pact with the radical left, on the other hand, making the PTB more frequentable and thus increasing competition to its left.”
Double risk
A double risk which has provoked debates internally at the PS, as revealed by our colleagues at La Libre. Let us also remember that the presence of the PTB in municipal majorities is not a new fact. In Flanders, the PTB had an alderman in the Antwerp district of Borgerhout. They were also associated with power in Zelzate. But in the latter commune, they have just been pushed aside by Vooruit in favor of the N-VA and the CD&V.
On the other side of the chessboard, these new alliances, which we thought “impossible”are not qualified as “progressives”but of “dangerous”. Present in Forest this Tuesday, Georges-Louis Bouchez, the president of the MR, believes that the PS “no longer has a political line” : “He is ready to do anything to stay in power. I regret the use of municipalities as laboratories. It’s neither very serious nor very realistic.”.
In Liège, the PS-MR-Les Engagés agreement concluded at the provincial level even stipulates that anyone who formed an alliance with the PTB at the local level would render the agreement null and void. “This is an element which is not insignificant in the relationship between the right or center parties with regard to the radical left”comments Benjamin Biard. “What is interesting is the transparency of this approach and that Maxime Prévot openly mentioned this clause… It is an idea aimed at reducing the field of possibilities for the left in the context of training at the local level.”
Is the sanitary cordon applicable to the PTB?
After Mons and Forest, it is Molenbeek and perhaps even Schaerbeek which could be led by majorities where the PS has allied itself with the PTB. This strategy would allow Paul Magnette’s troops to establish themselves in nine of the nineteen Brussels municipalities. Within the MR, however, some believe that the PS has “broken” a form of cordon santé.
For political scientist Benjamin Biard (Crisp), the cordon santé does not apply to the PTB: “As it has been developed, the sanitary cordon explicitly targets far-right parties. It is not an agreement which would concern another political ideology, such as the radical left. Basically, we do not find in the discourse and the program of the PTB of racist, xenophobic or negationist elements… Of course, from a strategic point of view, some would like the extension to the PTB, either because they are convinced of the danger that the PTB represents for democracy, or because from a strategic point of view, it contributes to dividing the left and this can reduce the field of possibilities in terms of forming coalitions.”
