In the third ‘Duel’ in the VTM Nieuws studio, CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi and Jeremie Vaneeckhout, co-chairman for Groen, competed against each other on Sunday afternoon. It became a hostile duel, in which very sharp accusations were hurled back and forth within the themes of healthcare, agriculture and migration. The two leaders attacked each other fiercely, particularly about migration. “You behave like a supporter of the extreme right,” Vaneeckhout said. “The best communications agency for Vlaams Belang are the ideas of the greens,” Mahdi said.
LOOK. Vaneeckhout and Mahdi on the attack about migration
Sammy Mahdi (CD&V) called Vaneeckhout’s view on migration “naive” and said he could not understand why the Greens at European level voted against the European migration pact. “We now finally have an agreement at European level to organize controls at the external borders, to prevent thousands, tens of thousands of people from arriving who should not actually be here. What are the greens doing; vote against that agreement. They don’t want to do that.”
Striking: Mahdi vetoed entering into a federal government with Green (on migration). “With all due respect, but if that is the vision of the Greens, then you cannot work with them in the next federal government,” said the CD&V chairman.
“No magic formulas”
Vaneeckhout accused Mahdi of “behaving like a supporter of the extreme right”. “You are bending to the pressure from the extreme right surrounding the migration debate. You tell people that there are magic formulas, that there are ways to take away people’s rights and simply send them back. You are misleading people with this and you are only making Vlaams Belang bigger in this way.”
Mahdi responded by once again portraying Vaneeckhout and his party as naive. “You are the only naive one at the table when it comes to migration.”
LOOK. Vaneeckhout about the problems within healthcare: “You let the people down”
“The problems have not been addressed for twenty years”
Even when it came to the problems within healthcare, the nails came up. Vaneeckhout went all out on the attack and complained that CD&V ministers have been responsible for healthcare for many years and have thus helped create the problems in the sector: “CD&V ministers have come and gone on that matter for twenty years, but the waiting lists and problems have remained in care,” he blurted out. “Twenty years of CD&V ministers who have not tackled the problems.” He continued: “You’re just letting people down.”
There was also a lot of work on the theme of agriculture. Mahdi also dismissed Vaneeckhout as “naive” in that debate and called his statements “terrible”. Vaneeckhout shot back: “You have abandoned all ambition and what you are saying here is at odds with the agricultural policy you have pursued over the past twenty years.”
LOOK. VTM NIEUWS presents dilemmas to party chairmen Vaneeckhout and Mahdi
THE DUEL. Demir (N-VA) and Depraetere (Vooruit) on how purchasing power in our country should be protected: “Reducing taxes on labor”
THE DUEL. Theo Francken (N-VA) and Nicole de Moor (CD&V) on migration: “The EU has done nothing for 20 years”
WATCH ALSO. The complete broadcast of the third Duel in the VTM NIEUWS studio
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Tags: DUEL Mahdi CDV Vaneeckhout Green attack migration Vlaams Belang bigger Domestic
 and Vaneeckhout (Green) on the attack about migration: “You will only make Vlaams Belang bigger in this way” | Domestic){kind=link}