May 9, 2024
Today at
06:00
In the run-up to the regional, federal and European elections of June 9, we examine how the campaign is going in Brussels and Wallonia. In this column, Pauline Deglume, journalist at L’Echo, focuses on the election battle in the capital. ‘If the left wants to stop the success of the PTB, it will not be enough to loudly accuse the party of populism.’
This week the PTB announced its ‘red outlines’ for Brussels. In concrete terms, the party wants to make the Capital Region financially healthy again with three drastic interventions and provide an answer to a number of urgent social challenges. Firstly, she wants Brussels to receive more money from the federal level, about an extra billion euros per year. In addition, the ‘preferential policy’ must come to an end and the major projects must be taken out of the hands of the concrete barons. These are the project developers who emerged from the great Belgian fortunes. Just think of Jan De Nul Group or the holding company Ackermans & van Haaren.
Thorough reforms and maximum ethical responsibility of our political leaders are the only remedies against the rise of the extreme left in Brussels.
As a political journalist you may raise your eyebrows. Of course, the capital’s fiscal revenues are disproportionate to the wealth it generates. But everyone knows that nothing more can be done, because the north of the country is annoyed by the transfers. It is also not immediately clear how to proceed without the know-how of the large construction companies. So how can the Metro North project be completed? Who will build the social housing that the extreme left party is pushing for? And even if the PTB is right when it states that the 89 parliamentarians of the Brussels Region earn far too much, a reform in that area will not make the capital financially healthy.
Even though it’s all a bit too thick, the proposals of Raoul Hedebouw & co. do not fall on deaf ears among a significant portion of Brussels residents. After all, the PTB not only wants to tackle budget problems, it also wants to put Brussels politics back on the ground. Throughout the legislature, the many bickerings gave the impression that good management of public resources is not the biggest priority of our Brussels elected officials.
“Do you have a new job for me?”
We recently read in Le Soir that the general manager of Paradigm, which is responsible for the digitalization of the Brussels Region, submitted 70,000 euros in expenses, which were probably spent on golf equipment. Yet no one in the Brussels political class seems to really care about that. The magazine Le Vif reported on another example of good governance. The former director of Net Brussels – who has retained his status since being sidelined and his salary in salary scale A5, good for around 148,000 euros per year – has asked the government whether it has a new job for him.
It recently emerged that the general manager of Paradigm, which is responsible for the digitalization of the Brussels Region, submitted 70,000 euros in expenses, which were probably spent on golf equipment.
That brings us to the ‘Win for Life’ polemic that erupted in early 2023. It then came to light that high-ranking Brussels civil servants who have held their mandate for ten years retain their salaries for life. It even went so far that the government of Prime Minister Rudi Vervoort (PS) created two tailor-made posts for several former top officials of the administration.
And there is more. A comparison of the cabinets showed that those of the Brussels Region are the largest in the country, larger than those of the federal government. The record is in the name of the Brussels Prime Minister, who can count on 80 employees. And although it is not only Brussels that is at risk here, the Wijninckx ceiling was also exceeded in the pensions of many former regional parliamentarians.
If we look at the regularity with which our ministers fly, the federal level takes the cake, but the excellencies of small Brussels fly more often than their Flemish colleagues. There was also regularly a lot of fuss about high consultancy expenditure, even though Brussels is virtually broke. Just think of the 5 million euros paid to Deloitte for the IT equipment of the new headquarters of the Brussels Regional Public Service (GOB).
If the left wants to stop the PTB’s success, it will not be enough to loudly accuse the party of populism. Thorough reforms and maximum ethical responsibility of our political leaders are the only remedies against the rise of the extreme left.
Tags: people Brussels interested PTB
