De Wever: “they don’t have to call when it’s not about confederalism”. What do other parties say?

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  1. Found this when scrolling through my news feeds and noticed it was not posted before. I don’t see why NVA wants to keep on pushing confederalism when fracturing institutions didn’t really seem to improve anything over the past few years.

  2. N-VA chairman De Wever “should not call them if it is not about confederalism”: what do other parties say?

    If N-VA becomes the biggest party after the 2024 elections, the other parties should not call President Bart De Wever “if it is not about confederalism”. De Wever said so in “Villa politica”. For the party, all powers should go to the federal states. But not all the other parties are of the same opinion. An overview.

    It was Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA) who yesterday – during his speech for 11 July – put the theme back on the map. “Let’s please put an end to the current untenable situation after the next federal elections,” he said. “It is up to us, political leaders, to unblock the situation. To unblock it once and for all. The bulk of the powers must go to the federal states.”

    His party chairman Bart De Wever joins him today – just before the celebration in the Brussels parliament. “It is all over. Nothing is happening in Belgium any more and what is happening is wrong. If we were to win in 2024 and the parties that deny the voters – Open VLD and CD&V – were to be punished, then the game would be played”, he said in “Villa politica”.

    “I often hear: how are you going to realise confederalism? I would like to turn the question around: how are you going to make a Belgian government if the Flemish people make a clear choice? They don’t have to call me about anything anymore if it is not about confederalism.”

    The liberals are certainly not won over. “People who want to work together and are of good will can move mountains. I have seen that in two years of Corona,” says Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD). “That has nothing to do with structures. If there is one thing we need, it is politicians of good will. Then we can handle an incredible amount, in Flanders and Belgium.”

    A similar sound from his French-speaking MR colleagues. “It’s not that things will be better by splitting the country,” says chairman George-Louis Bouchez. “We have already had a state reform. We should be working with that balance now, rather than moving on.”

    According to Vooruit, no one is really losing sleep over the division of powers. “A state reform is a means to an end,” says chairman Conner Rousseau. “I am open to it, but then I have to know what it leads to. Flanders is responsible for education and the level has never been so low. Flanders is responsible for residential care centres and prices are going up. So what do we want to do with these powers? Make it worse?”

    At CD&V they stress that you always have to look at how you can make the country function better. “You notice with the challenges in healthcare and the labour market that it is much too fragmented. Flanders points at Wallonia and Belgium and vice versa. That causes frustration and does not make for good policy,” says chairman Sammy Mahdi. “Give regions the opportunity to do their job and then things will work out.”

    “Flanders, meanwhile, has a lot of powers,” says Green co-chair Jeremie Vaneeckhout. “If it is to govern better, we will be a partner. But the first task must be to do something with the powers we have now. State reform is not an end in itself.”

    For Vlaams Belang, confederalism does not go far enough. The party wants to move towards an independent Flanders by 2024, said chairman Tom Van Grieken yesterday at a July 11 meeting in Bruges. “If the voter gives us a strong mandate, then it is feasible and logical,” he repeated today.

    Translated with http://www.DeepL.com/Translator (free version)

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