Breakthrough sought
Tuesday at 4 p.m., trainer Bart De Wever will go to the Palace to describe the state of progress. On December 29, he announced that this hearing would take place “with the desire that a significant breakthrough in the negotiations is indeed achieved”. A week later, despite some gnashing of teeth on the right, left and center, it appears that the president of the N-VA will ask for a final extension from King Philippe with the idea of being operational at the beginning of February.
David Clarinval (MR) on the “Arizona” negotiations: “New taxes, for the MR, it’s a No Go”
On Monday, the knife attack which occurred near 16, rue de la Loi, did not slow down the negotiations which were taking place a stone’s throw away, in the office of the President of the House, Peter De Roover (N-VA). Since Thursday, the bargaining has been between party presidents. This Monday, the presidents were not accompanied by their sherpa. Only Jan Jambon was also present to represent the N-VA. The president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez, arrived late “as per usual”underlines a member of a Flemish team.
Missed discretion
For several days, the liberal had set the tone in various media, to the great dismay of his partners who were banking on more discretion. The hot topic of the day was taxation. The MR’s benchmarks are known, they were hammered out during the electoral campaign and “Mr. 30%” repeats that he was elected on these promises that he cannot trample on. Georges-Louis Bouchez wants a differential of 500 euros between workers and unemployed people who benefit from aid allowances. He calls for a limitation on unemployment benefits. He doesn’t want new taxes on the middle class.
Still, 23 billion euros must be found. On the airwaves of RTBF, the Montois said he was open to a discussion on a greater contribution from “broadest shoulders”while keeping in mind that “10% of the richest already contribute 50% of the effort”. The liberal president is not opposed to a change in the distribution of effort, but ““It shouldn’t be extra taxes in the most taxed country in the world.” Let us point out that this percentage, taken from data produced by the Statbel institute, is questioned by certain economists, such as Philipe Defeyt. For the former Ecolo representative, the richest would only contribute 36.9% of the effort…
Arizona negotiators reunited: “We will have to form this government together”
Targeted taxation
On the left and in the center, the fact that the MR is willing to move forward on this ground is seen as a positive signal. In 2023, the outgoing Minister of Finance and CD&V negotiator, Vincent Van Peteghem was already talking about a “equitable contribution of the largest assets” in his tax reform project. However, this point “explosive” is not yet reached. “We still need to really attack taxation.”railed a source close to the presidents who deplored the time wasted on the file “labor market”. The question of the feasibility of the proposed measures was raised, particularly around unemployment or exceptional measures. “If some people weren’t busy making their wish rounds, we could have worked on Sunday.” added this source, targeting the Sunday congress of the MR in Tournai.
Monday afternoon, the negotiators dove into the fiscal aspect by analyzing point by point the hundreds of amendments submitted by the socialists and centrists. Vooruit ultimately reduced the number of modification requests to 150 while CD&V still had around a hundred. At the start of the evening, the “significant breakthrough” had not yet been achieved…
The agenda called for the meeting to end at 10 p.m., but it was not planned to end on Monday anyway. A second meeting is expected Tuesday morning, before visiting the king.
On Thursday, Bart De Wever estimated that the chances of having an Arizona coalition government by the end of January were “50-50“Currently, the report does not seem to have changed. Nobody believes in a resignation of the trainer, an abandonment of the mission or even a return to the polls. But everyone is convinced that the next few hours will be decisive. “I am convinced that everyone wants these socio-economic reforms”declared Theo Francken with serenity on VTM.
