Rousseau puts the delay on the timetable

Vooruit chairman Conner Rousseau said on Friday, 23 October, that the slow progress on the federal budget is not his party's fault. In an interview broadcast on VRT's De Afspraak op Vrijdag, he argued that talks had been allowed to drift for too long. He said Frank Vandenbroucke had asked in April to start the work early, and that in July Vooruit proposed agreeing a broad framework before the summer holidays and adjusting the details afterwards. Rousseau described the budget as now in injury time, and said his party had chosen to work quietly behind the scenes rather than talk publicly. He could not promise that a deal would arrive in time.

“I would very much like to tell people that, but I cannot guarantee it.”

A clash with De Wever over who pays

On 23 October, Prime Minister Bart De Wever said everyone would feel the effort in the budget. Rousseau responded that he still did not know how millionaires would be affected, and that if everyone is to feel the cost, the richest must be named too. He asked De Wever to show the same reasonableness he demands from the other partners at the table. Rousseau said his party had already told its own supporters many hard things and would defend every agreement loyally, including its difficult elements. He added that the parties calling for everyone to drop their taboos usually hold the most taboos themselves, and that a deal could come quickly if the burden were shared fairly.

“I will not allow the bill to be sent only to ordinary working people and pensioners.”

The richest and the millionaire question

Rousseau wants a bigger contribution from the wealthiest people. He said a millionaire tax had not been on the table in recent weeks, but that he did not care what the measure was called as long as the result was there. The idea of asking the broadest shoulders to pay through management companies has been debated recently, and he said that is not the same as a millionaire tax. Abuses must end, he said, since most people who run such companies are not millionaires. In an interview with De Morgen he said wealth in Belgium had grown by 74 billion euros in the second quarter of this year, and that he refused to send the bill only to ordinary people at such a moment. He also opposes some proposals, including the non-indexation of holiday pay for pensioners. The search for 10 billion euros is still grinding on, with the aim of keeping Belgium from becoming a plaything of financial markets.

Wednesday's brake and a book on Europe

De Morgen reported that Vooruit had held back an imminent agreement on Wednesday, 21 October, a move that irritated the other parties. Rousseau said the interview had been fixed a month earlier and that his book, Nu of nooit ('Now or never'), was no reason to talk about the budget. The book argues that Europe must take its own future in hand, or the old continent risks being crushed between the United States, China and Russia. In the interview he said Belgium is too small to face those powers alone and that Europe is a means to improve the country rather than an end. He presented the book in a coffee bar in Sint-Niklaas, while the budget talks continued in Brussels.