The emergency is here. The need to have a fully functioning Brussels government has become a necessity. An emergency if we want to be able to effectively face the accumulating challenges. An imperative if we want to escape from the institutional DIY in which we are settling. This imperative, this urgency, is the news of the moment which is knocking on the doors of Brussels decision-makers.
First emergency: the future of the Audi Forest site. We learned this morning in the newspaper The Echo that the trainer David Leisterh instructed Pierre Hermant to list the potential buyers of the site. Pierre Hermant is the managing director of Finance & Invest Brussels, the regional investment company, a public interest limited company, the financial arm of the region, able to invest in companies considered strategic for the future of the region. A man who knows the industrial and entrepreneurial fabric very well. We would add that Pierre Hermant worked in the past at FEBIAC, the federation of automobile companies, so he knows the subject particularly well. It is in this capacity that Pierre Hermant met Audi management with David Leisterh last week. He also tells the newspaper The Echo have already contacted the European Investment Bank. For the moment, it is still Audi which has control over the future of the site, but we are preparing to take over in case nothing happens on the Audi side.
This designation is therefore rather good news. The sign that Brussels decision-makers are concerned about the issue and are preparing a plan B so as not to find yourself stuck in the water. The problem is that it’s an informal designation. David Leisterh is not minister-president. Pierre Hermant presents himself as a facilitator or coordinator of the file without having the title. Its legitimacy to intervene could be contested. And we are never safe from a hypothesis, unlikely but which must be considered despite everything, where David Leisterh would not be able to form a government. Or that the competence of the economy fails a partner who wishes to work with another representative on this file. The Hermant mission is both economically and strategically essential, and yet it appears this Friday legally and politically shaky. The only way out of this will be for a full minister to appoint Pierre Hermant, or someone else, to the position of “Mr. Audi”.
Second emergency that we can identify this morning: the question of security. With three series of shootings in a few days, including one which targeted a police patrol, drug traffickers are remembering us fondly. We were already talking about it yesterday in this editorial, security remains a major issue. It would therefore be necessary to think about our regional security strategy, even if a large part of the answer depends on the federal authorities. Members of yesterday’s opposition did not spare their criticism of Rudi Vervoort in this matter, accusing him of not doing enough. He replied that he did everything his skills allowed him to do. The Minister-President is in current affairs. It is therefore important to have a new government, with a new head of security, who will be able, within his powers, to quickly bring together the conference of mayors and the Regional Security Council. Is our hotspot policy bearing fruit? Should it be modified? These are questions that arise today. And we will add that the new minister-president will also have the responsibility of demanding that the federal level reinvest in justice, in the police and in the social services which must be mobilized on this issue.
Do you want another example? Renolution bonuses. It was agreed yesterday that the government in current affairs would proceed with the payment of the bonuses due in 2024. This payment had been suspended for lack of sufficient funds, approximately 7 million are missing. It was the Minister of the Budget, Sven Gatz, who was responsible for finding the 7 million in question through a budgetary adjustment. This adjustment must then be validated by a vote of the regional Parliament. A sort of political engineering of which Belgium has the secret, since a government in current affairs is not competent to modify the budget. That it is necessary to develop treasures of institutional imagination to get around the blockage is new proof of the urgency that there is now to form a government.
This Friday, ten days before the municipal elections, we are therefore calling on Brussels trainers to become aware of the extremely uncomfortable situation in which the Brussels Region finds itself. Audi, safety, budget, and it may not be over. We need full government to meet all these challenges. We are therefore calling on our political parties, whether large or small, to abandon their virile postures and their campaign declarations. Put away the little phrases and blocking positions, concentrate on the essential and not on the accessory, even if it is symbolic. Audi and the safety of Brussels residents seem at least as important to us as knowing whether we will keep the Good Move label or not. Accept the results of the ballot boxes and respect the institutional reality, even if we might wish for another. Leave the trenches and move the lines. So negotiate, and quickly. Don’t force us to display the counter of these days without government, which would highlight your inability to govern. We voted on June 9. The Brussels Region has already been without a government for 117 days.
Fabrice Grosfilley
