A government fall in French-speaking Belgium is lurking around the corner after tensions between PS, Ecolo and MR over a reform of higher education. The liberals want to make cuts, but the greens and socialists now oppose this. And even threaten to form a rotating majority with the opposition party PVDA. Prime Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet (MR) wants to see in the coming days whether his government is still working.
The French community government is deeply divided over a planned reform of higher education. A new decree would determine the period within which students must pass: they would only have two years to acquire their first 60 credits. After five years they must have obtained their bachelor’s degree. PS and Ecolo now want to weaken that reform, after protests from the students.
But Minister of Higher Education Françoise Bertieaux (MR) does not want to budge. The Greens and Socialists therefore wrote their own proposal and submitted it on Tuesday morning, without consultation with coalition partner MR. PS and Ecolo are prepared to persevere and, if necessary, are considering forming an alternating majority with the extreme left PVDA/PTB to slow down the reform.
MR chairman Georges-Louis Bouchez stated in an interview on Tuesday evening that the issue weighs sufficiently heavily to allow the government to fall if necessary. Prime Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet (MR) wants to see in the coming days “whether the government of the French community is still working”. Jeholet still hopes to find a compromise, but without denying the text “which was adopted barely two years ago”.
Jeholet proclaimed anything but a peaceful message last week. In an interview with ‘Le Soir’ he lashed out at his coalition partners. “What PS and Ecolo are doing is irresponsible and disloyal,” it said. The Prime Minister said he was “angry and disappointed” and called on “everyone to regain their sense of responsibility”.
It is not the first time that the French Community government has found itself in an atmosphere of crisis. Tensions already increased last year after a discussion between PS and MR about the possible introduction of a master’s program in medicine at the University of Bergen.
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Tags: Angry disappointed political crisis Frenchspeaking Belgium chairman Bouchez rule fall government Domestic
