Tinne Van der Straeten (Green) files a complaint against Georges-Louis Bouchez (MR): “I will no longer accept this sabotage policy”

In an interview with The standard Georges-Louis Bouchez (MR) stated earlier this week that there should be a committee of inquiry into the way in which the extension of the nuclear power stations was handled by the then CEO of Elia, Chris Peeters, and Minister of Energy Tinne Van der Straeten (Green). According to Bouchez, people had lied in the months before in order to be able to stick to the nuclear phase-out.

“I will no longer tolerate this policy of sabotage,” says Van der Straeten. The minister has asked her lawyer about the necessary legal steps to file a complaint for defamation for damaging her reputation.

What are you so concerned about? This is political, right?

“No, this is slander. Bouchez has said twice that I am lying, that I am instrumentalizing Elia’s analyzes and that a commission of inquiry should be set up. We are talking about a committee with the powers of an investigating judge, who has the ability to conduct searches. Commissions of inquiry recently existed into sexual abuse in the church or at Flemish level into the crisis in childcare, where a child died. And now there should be one, simply because the chairman of the MR differs in opinion about the policy to be pursued? If Bouchez wants to legalize the political debate, I will file a complaint for unfounded statements that are also legally actionable.”

Your frustration with Bouchez has been around for some time?

“I’ve really had it. Point. For about three and a half years people told me: don’t worry about it, what he says is completely misleading, but let it pass. In this way the boundary always moves further. It’s high time to bullyBouchez’s policy. A government is a team, but Bouchez does nothing more than launch frontal attacks on the person, with statements that are based on nothing. This is a new low in politics.”

If you have nothing to hide, you don’t have to fear such an investigative committee, do you?

“That misses the point. Bouchez says here that an investigating judge must check what a minister has done. Sorry, but a minister is accountable to parliament. And that’s exactly what I did, because we have nothing to hide. I have received many questions from Parliament over the past three years and have always provided clarity. I have not committed any criminal offenses: I simply implemented the coalition agreement.”

“It is precisely Bouchez’s sabotage strategy that has destroyed this entire government. The corona crisis, the energy crisis, the floods in the Vesdre Valley: this government has protected people in difficult circumstances, with vaccines, with the social energy tariff. But in the end all that work is ruined, because a certain Bouchez says that it is of no use and that a minister does nothing but lie. Sorry, but that is a way of working together that suits me. We have now reached the end of the legislature and things are only going in crescendo. This is where I draw a line in the sand.”

Would you still want to be in a government with Bouchez’s MR?

“I would like to continue my work, but with this MR, with this method? By no means.”

“It can also be done differently. Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) and I also have a different vision. I am convinced that we must go to 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, and that we can do without nuclear energy: that is the most certain, the cleanest and the cheapest. De Croo is convinced that you will also need nuclear energy, possibly with new power stations. We have different opinions, but together we have extended the lifespan of two nuclear power plants, the CRM (the subsidy mechanism, ed.) set up and increased the number of wind turbines at sea times three. Together. Because we respect each other. Then you can go far.”

In retrospect, Bouchez was right: those nuclear power plants had to be extended.

“It didn’t happen that way. We had a coalition agreement. It stated that we would implement the nuclear phase-out law, unless there were a problem with security of supply. And then came the war in Ukraine, but also the problems with the nuclear park in France. If that war had not happened, we would have simply carried out the nuclear phase-out. A nuclear exit that all previous governments confirmed, but refused to prepare.”

Open VLD and N-VA want to get rid of the nuclear phase-out law. Does Groen still hold on to it? There is not a word about it in the election manifesto.

“Anyway. Five of the seven nuclear power stations are now closed. The other two can work for another ten years. New nuclear power plants are unrealistic: foreign examples prove that they are many billions over budget and will not help us in the coming years, given the long construction period. And then there is the nuclear waste. Meanwhile, in the field of renewable energy, there is enormous potential for our companies, which are already building wind farms all over the world.”

“The next government must further consider energy policy, but on the basis of facts, and not with saboteurs around the table. I oppose this way of politics with every fiber in my body. The problems facing us are complex enough as it is, we will need all our collective intelligence to tackle them. This can only be achieved with respect for each other.”

You say that you want to continue your work as minister, but Groen only gets 6 percent in the latest poll.

“We still have work to do in this campaign. The Planning Bureau’s analysis proves that we are the only complex-free progressive party that wants to reduce poverty to zero. We are an outspoken party. It is logical that there could be a strong response to this.”