The Brussels PS office met this Thursday, with a view to discussing the formal opening, or not, of negotiations to form a majority with the MR and the Engagés. On the liberal side, almost three weeks after the elections, there was clearly hope for a green light.
He did not come. At the Brussels PS, we believe that the information phase is not yet finished, and must be deepened.
In a press release, the Brussels Socialist Party said it considered that “ in the absence of programmatic orientations on priorities and a precise budgetary trajectory, the elements provided do not constitute – at this stage – a working basis allowing a decision to be made on entering into formal negotiations with a view to the formation of a regional government.
The Political Bureau of the Brussels PS therefore underlined this Friday its request to see proposed by the Brussels informants “a precise programmatic note meeting economic, social and environmental issues” from Brussels.
This must be accompanied by a detailed multi-annual budgetary trajectory,”not resulting from an austerity regime harmful to the Brussels social body”.
The MR’s note, according to the PS, in fact only contained the MR’s orientations, and the PS wants its own concerns to be integrated into it. The socialists thus intend to avoid engaging in formal negotiations without assurance that their own demands will be included in the discussions.
The PS wants regulation of the rental market
The Brussels PS therefore recalled its own priorities, particularly on the thorny issue of housing, pointing out in particular the “regulation of the private rental market to address the unjustified rise in rents in Brussels”, and the “strengthening a social housing policy to directly help the most precarious families” or even the maintenance of a public investment policy allowing “to meet regional climate commitments.”
He also points to the “refinancing of local police zones by the federal State”; the policy of social cohesion at the neighborhood level”, or even maintaining an ambitious public investment policy to meet regional climate commitments.
An acceleration this week
The information phase, however, accelerated somewhat this week. Ahmed Laaouej, president of the Brussels Federation of the PS, responded favorably to the invitation from David Leisterh, president of the Brussels MR, to discuss on the basis of an initial political note and a budgetary framework note. A first meeting took place this Wednesday.
David Leisterh (MR) met Ahmed Laaouej and the Brussels PS: Brussels negotiations are finally getting off to a good start
This Friday, Ahmed Laaouej also informed the Brussels PS office of the first elements provided by the informants and “dand their wish to immediately act on an arithmetic majority with the PS and the Engagés”, regretting however that David Leisterh did not formally meet with the other Brussels parties as well. In practice, the MR met with all the parties, with the exception of the PTB.
How can we decipher the PS’s reaction? In practice, it is more of a delay than a blockage. The PS is in a way sending the ball back into the MR’s court, which had put the socialists under pressure by publicly inviting them to the negotiating table. Trust remains tenuous between the partners and progress looks set to be slow.
As a reminder, on June 10, the day after the elections, Paul Magnette, president of the PS, announced his “choice of the opposition, everywhere“. The remarks were quickly qualified by Ahmed Laaouej, president of the Brussels Federation of the PS, since the PS, mathematically, is difficult to get around in the capital where an MR-PS-Engaged majority appears to be the most credible option.
