This 43-year-old from Brussels runs Sprimoglass, a glass processing company, based in Sprimont (province of Liège). After 20 years of career in the private sector, he decided, two years ago, to enter the political arena. He became president of the Open VLD in Brussels in 2023. He even tried to win the national presidency of the party the following year, but had to lose to Eva De Bleeker. Never mind. While Sven Gatz is weakened by health problems, he is now emerging as the new strongman of the Flemish liberals in the capital.
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Why did you enter politics at over 40?
I was becoming a cynical person… I looked at current politics without understanding it anymore. There is not enough diversity of profiles between career politicians and the business world, the world of sport, etc. I don’t believe that a political career can last another 30 or 35 years. Being a power addict is never a good thing. You need new blood to reinvent yourself.
And at the same time, your name quietly sounds like a new liberal dynasty. After the De Croos and the Michels, we will now have the De Guchts?
I’m responsible for a lot of things except my name. Everyone has a dad and I’m proud of mine. He made a difference in politics during his career. He wasn’t happy when I got into politics, but I want to change something. I set myself a certain deadline to get there, because I don’t see myself as a career politician. I also want to remain an entrepreneur, at the same time.
Brussels resident Frederic De Gucht, son of Karel De Gucht, also candidate for president of the Open VLD
So you will not become government budget commissioner, the position that the Open VLD agreed to take, when the Brussels government is formed?
I am not the Open VLD candidate. This is neither my ambition nor my goal. But you should not have a mandate to influence the direction of a government or a party.
However, it is you who negotiates the formation of the Brussels government and seems to be holding the helm of the Open VLD in Brussels. Are the days of Sven Gatz over?
We have not yet decided on the candidate. Sven started the renewal of the Open VLD 5 years ago. I managed the last campaign, behind the curtain. We wanted to launch a new generation on our lists, which we did. This does not mean that, necessarily, Sven Gatz will leave tomorrow. I am convinced that he still has an important role to play.
What does the budgetary situation of the Brussels Region mean to you?
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The finances of the Brussels Region are in a critical state, which endangers the future of the Region as we currently know it. I see that not everyone understands this. Look at the Brussels debt compared to the Region’s income. If it exceeds 240%, it will mean that we are no longer recognized as a sovereign entity. And that the higher level will have to vouch for our funding. We will need someone else to co-sign our loans with us. Like a young couple who needs their parents’ signature to receive a loan. Second point: the financial burden of interest. If this charge exceeds 8%, of the total budget – or 480 million euros – we will be faced with the same problem. However, we are very close to it (Editor’s note: the cost of the debt reaches 335 million euros by 2024). We absolutely must avoid this. Every day we lose in forming a government, we make the situation worse. If we do not take measures very quickly, we risk finding ourselves under federal supervision.
Are the last two Brussels Budget Ministers, Guy Vanhengel, then Sven Gatz (two Open VLDs), responsible for this slippage?
Responsibility for a budget is never the responsibility of just one person. It is collective. I am the manager of a company, and if there is a problem in my budget, the shareholders are not going to say that it is the fault of the CFO (Chief Financial Officer). The one who is responsible for the company’s budget is the CEO. Same thing in politics. The person responsible for finance is the Minister-President (Rudi Vervoort), and not the Minister of the Budget (Sven Gatz). We could have been a little more severe. We tried to do so via the circulars from the Gatz cabinet, but they were not followed. The initial 2019 budget also planned a return to balance, but this initial budget, apart from the crises we experienced, was not followed.
Sven Gatz says about himself that he was not a good budget minister…
In the circumstances as they were, Sven Gatz did his best to be a good budget minister. But in life, you can always do better. We could have been more assertive at times. But we were one of the only centrist and right-wing parties in a government more sensitive to spending than saving.
Your speech on the results of the Open VLD in the Brussels budget is somewhat reminiscent of the speech of the PS in Wallonia: “Without us, it would be worse”…
We are far from being the Walloon PS… And then, I can’t change the past, otherwise I would have bought bitcoins 5 years ago! I want to influence the future. And I think that we can, with a strong partner, like David Leisterh and the MR, change the financial future of the Region.
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