Drieu Godefridi (N-VA): “Believing that Wallonia is condemned to be dominated by the left is wrong”

We must not get stuck in terminological quarrels. Article 35 of the Constitution allows the principle of distribution of powers to be reversed. Currently, the federal government has jurisdiction except in exceptional circumstances. Article 35 allows the opposite to be done: the federated entities would have jurisdiction as a rule except for the exceptions negotiated for the federal government. Confederalism will have to be negotiated and will be the result of a long, difficult and thorny discussion. At the moment, it seems to me that Article 35 is the best basis for going where we want, that is to say towards maximum autonomy for Flanders and Wallonia. It is obvious that a declaration of independence for Flanders or Wallonia would not be practicable, particularly with regard to the European Union.

The N-VA launches lists in Wallonia and wants to shake up the MR there

Your socio-economic program is very close to that of the MR. But you insist on a difference: the liberals make a pact with the left once in power, according to you. Are you sure that the same will not happen with the N-VA if, for example, it were to govern with the PS at the federal level?

It should be remembered that the planning office, after analyzing the electoral programs of the parties, considered that that of the MR was the one which brought us closest to the cessation of payments! In reality, the N-VA and the MR have a very different agenda when it comes to balancing the budget. We must remember that at the end of the “Swedish” majority at the federal level, in which we participated, we ended with a quasi-balanced budget. The N-VA is not promising fabulous things before the elections. Conversely, history shows us that the MR’s real concern is to be in power.

How to convince Walloon voters to vote for the N-VA? There remains a paradox: the confederalism that you advocate will have the effect of giving more management skills to the left-wing parties which dominate the south of the country.

Things are not set in stone. If we look at the opinion polls, we see a real erosion of the vote in favor of the PS, which tends towards 20%. I knew a time when this party was at 40%. Believing that Wallonia is condemned to be dominated by the left is therefore factually erroneous. When the N-VA is established in Wallonia also at the regional level (in the south of the country, Bart De Wever’s party is only running at the federal level, Editor’s note), it will be with the aim of establishing alternative majorities center-right, free of socialism and environmentalism.

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Bart De Wever considers that Greens are worse than communists. Is this also your case? In your books, you often use greens as targets.

Ecolo is a leftist party in the strict sense but is also a government party. As such, it is infinitely more dangerous than the PTB which demands, before coming to power, that we modify the European treaties… The PTB is supported by a detestable ideology which has caused the death of a large number of people in the 20th century, but its potential for harm in reality is less than Ecolo. The PS comes just after Écolo in the gradation of the worst, because the socialists have been the main players in the Walloon system for half a century.

You call for a “moratorium on asylum”. Does this mean that Belgium must refuse any welcome?

It’s in the N-VA program. It is inspired by the Australian and Canadian model: someone who has reached European territory by illegal means will never have the right to reside there. At the Belgian level, knowing that we have welcomed many more asylum seekers than other countries in Europe, and that we have the worst difficulties integrating them economically – which is our fault and not of theirs – the N-VA is proposing a 10-year moratorium, time to resolve what needs to be resolved. We have people sleeping in the street, the State has been condemned 9,000 times… This moratorium will not prevent us from welcoming a certain number of asylum seekers, but in more controlled conditions than at present current.

If the N-VA returned to power at the federal level, could you become a minister?

If it were offered to me, I would carefully consider the possibility. But I don’t ask for anything. You have to be modest: my only obsession, in launching myself into this campaign without political experience, was not to make any big blunders that could have harmed the N-VA.

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