Some Flemish Members of Parliament tried again on Thursday to summon VRT CEO Frederik Delaplace, with the intention of providing explanations for the series of scandals that have recently plagued the public broadcaster. One of the criticisms to which Delaplace should respond is that the VRT under his leadership would create programs tailored to the needs of the Flemish government and Flemish Prime Minister and N-VA leader Jan Jambon.
But the N-VA managed to avert the vote on the ‘arrangement of activities’, in which the VRT CEO would be called up, with a whole game of musical chairs. When opposition member Katia Segers (Vooruit) entered the meeting, Manuela Van Werde (N-VA) resigned. When people from Groen and Open VLD joined, Marius Meremans (N-VA) left. As a result, they kept the number of MPs needed too low for the vote to go ahead.
The N-VA thus kept the VRT top out of the wind – for the fifth time now. At the end of last week, the party also stopped the boat, helped by Vlaams Belang. This time too, Vlaams Belang was absent.
“It is indisputable that the N-VA is preventing this,” responds Orry Van de Wauwer (CD&V), who had applied for the scheme. “This is obstruction of the work of parliament.At some point you have to accept what the majority decides, and here there is a majority for a hearing.”
“Greek tragedy”
“The aim of parliament is to control the government,” Van de Wauwer adds. His party, CD&V, is itself a government partner and even provides the Minister of Media with Benjamin Dalle. “But I have more of a feeling that the government here controls parliament,” he says. “It is the government that determines what we can or cannot say in parliament, what questions we can or cannot ask.”
Opposition member Meyrem Almaci (Green) also reacts indignantly. “With its behavior, the N-VA is sabotaging the normal democratic functioning of the committee,” she says. “Apparently all means are good to prevent a hearing up to five times. What does the N-VA have to hide?”
Marius Meremans, who left the session, meaning there was no quorum, defends his action. “There was already a vote in April” about a possible hearing with the VRT CEO, he says. The context then was the postponed broadcast of the Bart De Pauw documentary The process that no one wanted. The committee was then in number, but there were not enough votes for it.
In the meantime, there was the revelation that the VRT management also Godforsaken initially wanted to stop, and the accusation that the public broadcaster would make programs tailor-made for the government. But those new elements do not change things for Meremans.
He remains opposed to a hearing with Delaplace. “The role of parliament is to question the minister, not the CEO,” he says. He accuses the other members of the Media Committee of wanting to organize “political interference” with the broadcaster.
Meremans also talks about “a show” that is performed in parliament. “They are now playing Greek tragedies in Ghent,” he says, referring to the recently started performance All Greeksfestival of NTGent. “Maybe the committee should go there.”
“Not the spokesperson”
In the Media Committee, Minister Benjamin Dalle (CD&V) was also asked again about the problems at the broadcaster, where Almaci spoke about the, according to her, imminent “orbanization” of the VRT, after the Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban. “If I were CEO, I would have come here ten times to explain myself,” she added. But Dalle does not see a crisis at the public broadcaster, he says. “I will not deny the problems, but I do not agree that there is a crisis.”
According to Dalle, there is mainly a perception problem. “The VRT decides autonomously on the title, concept, content and timing of broadcasting programs,” he says, referring to the criticism about government interference. He put the recent problems at the public broadcaster into perspective, once again rejected calls for an external audit and did not consider it necessary to hear the CEO in parliament.
He also cited figures to show that no more money now flows from cabinets to the VRT to make programs than before. “It concerns additional financing,” says Dalle. “That is something different than ordering a program.” This led to a snide comment from Jos D’Haese (PVDA): “If I want a pizza, I can also say that it is not an order, but ‘additional financing’ for a pizzeria,” he said.
A large part of the information that Dalle provided to the committee came from the VRT itself, he said. “If management provides me with information, I am confident that it is correct,” Dalle said. “But it’s not like I don’t have other sources.” He thus denied that he would be “the spokesperson for the VRT”.
