Bart De Wever at election meeting: ‘The hardworking Flemish is the most plumed chicken’

“It’s cycling uphill, but the word Flandrien doesn’t exist for nothing,” N-VA chairman Bart De Wever mobilized the yellow supporters at an N-VA election meeting in Ghent to step up the final straight line to June 9.

After warm-up remarks from Matthias Diependaele about the Flemish record and Johan Van Overtveldt about Europe, who honored outgoing ‘founding father’ Geert Bourgeois, party chairman Bart De Wever – who indicated that he has been at the helm of the N -VA – in his closing speech in the Capitole in Ghent that a lot is at stake.

‘For the next six weeks, I want each of you to try every day to convince one more doubting Flemish person. Speak to people as much as you can and confront them with the truth. The truth that our prosperity is at stake. The truth that we can no longer afford the federal standstill,” said De Wever.

He listed those numbers again. The budget deficit has increased by 20 billion euros, the debt mountain has risen, the government is failing to perform its core tasks. ‘Yet no one pays higher taxes than those who work in this country. No one in the world. The hard-working Flemish is head and shoulders the most plumed chicken of all,’ he said.

De Wever points the finger at Vivaldi and the Parti Socialiste. ‘The Vivaldi policy has organized a huge transfer from working people to non-working people, not coincidentally the largest voter group of the Parti Socialiste. Social spending soared
through the ceiling. ‘Isn’t that beautiful? With a Flemish liberal prime minister,” Paul Magnette added with a laugh. Witty! But unfortunately it is not just the Prime Minister who is being laughed at. Juul Kabas has never sounded louder: they are fools who work.’

The Parti Socialiste plans to continue on that path, De Wever warned the supporters. He referred to the double interview with Magnette in De Tijd, where the PS chairman confirmed that he has more than 10 billion in new taxes in store. “And he did not even contradict the fact that the Flemish will have to pay 70 to 80 percent of this,” said De Wever.

‘Well, I’ll also be clear: not with us, never with the N-VA. Done with Vivaldi, done with squeezing and laughing at the hardworking Flemish, done with governing without a Flemish majority.’ The applause meter went red in the Capitole hall.

The chairman warned once again that Vivaldi will continue without the N-VA, if she can. The N-VA wants to put a stop to that. ‘If the N-VA receives a strong mandate from the Flemish voter, the N-VA will participate in governance. Then I will be a candidate to lead the next federal government myself.” Loud applause again.

And he immediately stated what the N-VA’s offer is, if it can help govern. ‘The budget must be in order, people who go to work must always earn at least 500 euros more net, social policy must become much fairer, the nuclear phase-out law must finally be scrapped, investments in security and defense must increase, and migration policy should be based on the Australian model. That’s our program in a nutshell.

And because, according to De Wever, this cannot be achieved in ‘the current federal straitjacket’, he believes that the transition to confederalism must be pushed through.’ The applause meter went up again. And even if it is an uphill cycle in the coming election marathon, with Flemish prosperity as the stakes, that will not stop Flandriens.