The announcement, at the start of the weekend, of the arrival at the MR of Noa Pozzi, former head of the list of the far-right formation “Chez nous” in view of the last federal elections, did not get through like a letter in the mail within the French-speaking political spectrum, including the Liège federation of the MR.
The affiliation of the Liège leader of “Chez nous” was endorsed by the president of the MR, according to Sudpresse. He was also present at the wishes of the Liège MR in the middle of the past week. On the left, disapproval is unanimous.
Rumors about this merger had already been circulating for several months. In August, Georges-Louis Bouchez denied this information. Even though he had submitted his membership request via an online form, Noa Pozzi had not been accepted as a member of the MR.
The president of the Reform Movement then explained to our colleagues at Sudinfo that his contribution of €20 was “immediately” refunded. “He wanted to join and we refused him”assured Georges-Louis Bouchez. “He is not and has never been a member of the MR.”
The parties react
As of Saturday, the president of the PS, Paul Magnette, strongly decried, on “X”, this arrival “calm” in the liberal ranks “after the multiple xenophobic and homophobic outings made at @MR_officiel”. For the socialist leader, “every democrat must today stand up against this erasure of difference with the extreme right” and this “assumed strategy”.
On the sidelines of the meeting of PTB activists on the occasion of the New Year, the president of the radical left party, Raoul Hedebouw spoke “alarmed by this permeability towards the far right, because it is not just importing ideas within the framework of right-wing populist rhetoric, it is symptomatic of a discourse consisting of dividing for better reign comparable to the approach of Donald Trump”.
The co-presidents of Ecolo, Samuel Cogolati and Marie Lecocq were not left out. “When blue turns to brown”portrayed the first via “X”. “The MR of Georges-Louis Bouchez relays extreme right speeches, the extreme right comes to him. Who still surprises?”asked Marie Lecocq, via the Belga agency.
In the center, the president of DéFI, Sophie Rohonyi judged that the MR was not “more liberal” because “being liberal means defending freedoms against the extreme right, certainly not colluding with them to trivialize their stinking ideas”. In passing, she noted, on “X”, that the Amarante formation had left a list including an MR candidate close to the Italian extreme right (the “Ensemble” list in Sambreville, Editor’s note).
On the Engagés side, the party presidency abstained from any comments. Without commenting on a person he admits not knowing, the president of Engagés Bruxelles, Christophe De Beukelaer underlined that the issue of “the immense economic, technological and geopolitical delay taken by Brussels, Belgium, and Europe” held his full attention. However, he made a point of recalling that the Engaged “have and will never have any connivance with the extremes.”
The head of the MR group in the parliament of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, Diana Nikolic, one of the leading figures of the Reform Movement in Liège, for her part regretted that the Liège liberals had not been “neither consulted nor even informed about Noa Pozzi’s membership.
Saying that it maintains its intransigence on the subject of “liberal and progressive values which underpin our political movement”, she nevertheless said she believed in the error and “the possibility of diverting people, especially the youngest, from extremist, populist, hateful ideas, etc..”
What Noa Piozzi “turning away from the extreme right while still so young is rather good news. But he was not a simple activist within the extreme right party, he was the head of the list in the federal elections. This implies to be extremely careful before possibly accepting it”she notably supported via Facebook.
Finally, we will again note the “firm condemnation of the opening of the Reform Movement to the extreme right” formulated on Sunday by the Circle of Liberal Students of the ULB (not affiliated with the MR, Editor’s note).
Chez Nous mr georges-louis bouchez extreme right politics
