The Federal Secretary of State responsible for the budget has resigned. The Flemish liberal Eva De Bleeker (photo above) has handed in her resignation after once again mistakes were discovered in her budget figures. The Francophone liberal Alexia Bertrand (photo below) will succeed Ms De Bleeker as Secretary of State it responsibility for the federal budget.
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Federal Secretary of State resigns after blunders in her budget
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Last month the Federal Government reached an agreement on budget for 2023 and 2024. The figures that the State Secretary responsible for the federal budget Eva De Bleeker (Flemish liberal) presented to parliament at the end of last week took into account a permanent reduction in the rate of VAT on gas and electricity from 21% to 6%. This meant that the budget deficit was suddenly 1.5 billion euro greater that the Prime Minister had previous said.
The Federal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, who is also a Flemish liberal,spoke of “a material error” and Ms De Bleecker told the Finance Committee of the Federal Parliament that she would rectify her error and a new document containing the “correct” figures would be published ASAP. However, the revised figures also contain mistakes.
The Flemish liberal party’s top brass met earlier on Friday to decide what should be done. The party’s leader Egbert Lachaert met with the Federal Prime Minister and Ms De Bleeker at the Flemish liberal party’s headquarters on the Melsenstraat in the centre of Brussels.
Ms De Bleeker decided that after what has been a turbulent few days that it is time for her to go. Her successor is the Francophone liberal politician Alexia Bertrand. The perfectly bilingual Ms Bertrand is currently the Francophone liberal’s group leader in the Brussels Regional Parliament.