Unsurprisingly, the French-speaking reactions to Elke Van den Brandt’s “supernota”, serving as a basis for Flemish negotiations for the formation of a Brussels government and parts of which leaked this Tuesday, did not take long.
Last week, Elke Van den Brandt, leader of Groen, presented this starting note to her negotiating partners, Cieltje Van Achter (N-VA), Frédéric De Gucht (Open Vld) and Ans Persoons (Vooruit).
The document mentions, among other things, the possibility of a merger of police zones, CPAS and municipalities which would be replaced at the local level by districts where a reception desk for citizens would be maintained.
It was enough to excite a certain number of minds on the French-speaking side.
► Read also | Merger of municipalities, return of the kilometer tax: what does the starting note of the Flemish negotiations contain?
The PS points to a “throwback of 20 years”
Questioned by the DH, the federal deputy and outgoing mayor of Evere Redouane Chahid (PS) denounces an “institutional” supernote, “tailor-made for the N-VA”. For the socialist, with this note, the Dutch-speaking trainer “de facto” excludes the PS from the negotiations given that it has made known its veto to govern with the N-VA. “Today is a 20-year flashback. It is the return of the community as a prerequisite. The community has been poisoning political life for too long and pushing the daily concerns of citizens into the background. Groen therefore decided to serve the soup at the N-VA“, he regrets.
► See also | Ridouane Chahid on the Brussels team: “It will be difficult to be around a table with the N-VA”
Bernard Clerfayt (DéFI) denounces him in a press release “a receptacle of old Flemish fantasies” Who “forgets, beyond a few banalities, to drastically tackle the main issues in Brussels“. With the N-VA around the table, no one could ignore that the merger of municipalities and police zones would come back to the forefront of the scAndne, he believes, recalling that such a merger of police zones n’would not result in energy savingschelle nor any guarantee of greater police efficiency. “This Flemish obsession poorly hides the Flemish parties’ thirst for power and their ignorance of the real issues in the management of our city-region.“, he adds. In the eyes of the leader of the amaranths, this super note does not carry enough legitimate demands so that the federal State finally assumes its responsibilities towards the Capital Region.
Nothing new for the Engaged
For the president of Engagés Bruxelles, Christophe De BeukelaerHowever, it should not surprise anyone that the Flemish parties have a different vision than Les Engagés on the institutional aspect in Brussels, and that their starting positions in a negotiation are therefore far apart. “Vooruit, for example, campaigned under the name “one.brussels” demanding the merger of municipalities and police zones. These are old Flemish demands that appear in every negotiation“, he said.
In the eyes of the leader of the centrist party, we must therefore sit down at the negotiating table to talk about it. “I have good arguments to question these symbolic but very ineffective proposals.“, he added.
Flemish negotiators criticize leaks
“We are now doing everything we can to make this work. The disclosure of draft notes in the press does not bring us any closer to the establishment of a government”briefly commented the coordinator of discussions between Dutch-speaking parties, Elke Van den Brandt (Groen). For this one, “this kind of approach only blocks things, when the challenges are enormous and time is running out“.
For his part, Ans Persons (Vooruit) was also annoyed by this leak which “undermines the trust established in recent days. We continue to ask that discussions take place in complete discretion, in order to give this training process a chance of success.“, she said.
“We discussed a number of difficult issues with negotiators yesterday and are waiting for a reworked text to land“, for his part advanced Frederic De Gucht (Open VLD), not without adding: “So this note is really worthless“.
BX1 with Belga – Photos: Belga
■ Explanations from Fabrice Grosfilley, political columnist at BX1, in the 6 p.m.
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