Socialist Vooruit warns of Brexit scenario if Belgium is split, other parties offer sweeteners

Flemish socialist supremo Conner Rousseau addressed the party faithful in Sint-Niklaas.  He warned against splitting the country like the far right Vlaams Belang wish. According to the former party chair, a Brexit scenario is looming large.

"In the UK the extreme right promised that breaking away from Europe would be good for workers, for healthcare and for the economy. After a decade of palaver, they have achieved what they wanted: poorer conditions for working people, worse health care and an economy that is ailing."

"I don't want a Brexit in Belgium," Mr Rousseau continued. "We don't have time to spend 10, 20, 30 years negotiating the end of the country." The Flemish socialists want to offer working people "solutions", he said: "Higher wages, additional investments in healthcare and a strong economy".

Communist PVDA reaches out to the socialists

"The PVDA is the strategic left-wing vote on 9 June. A vote for the PVDA is a vote for left-wing cooperation and for a left-wing bloc that makes fairer taxes and more purchasing power red lines," PVDA party chairman Raoul Hedebouw said in Brussels.

Mr Hedebouw is eyeing socialist Vooruit: "While Vooruit leader Melissa Depraetere says she would rather govern with the Flemish nationalist N-VA than with PVDA". "Today, the sad truth is that if you vote for Vooruit, you get N-VA for free. In Antwerp we have seen what an N-VA Vooruit administration means in reality, and the result is far from positive."

However the PVDA continues to reach out to Vooruit. "Either we work together for a real millionaire's tax, higher wages and a return to a retirement age at 65, or Vooruit, together with N-VA, will again freeze our wages and save billions on the healthcare and social security budgets."

Liberals pledge higher pensions for working Flemings

The Flemish liberals of Open VLD want pensions for people who have spent a lifetime working to rise by at least 500 euros. Speaking in Blankenberge Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo explained that this was an extension of his party’s earlier proposal to ensure working people should always earn 500 euros more than non-working people.

"Our proposal for employed people always to earn 500 euros more than non-employed people has since been adopted by several parties," Mr De Croo said.

"The fact that non-working people sometimes have a pension that is as high as people who have always worked, that strikes a nerve. That is not fair."

“For those in work, we must ensure that there is a second pillar. That ensures that if you work, you accrue more pension. That way, you can make the difference between pensions of employed people and non-employed people bigger."

Vlaams Belang wants 239 euros net extra for working Flemings

The far right Vlaams Belang has tabled a plan to improve purchasing power. The party wants working Flemings to have at least 239 euros net extra each month. "That way we make work pay again and tackle the promotion trap," leader Tom Van Grieken said in De Panne.

The plan that will cost 8.5 billion euros will be funded by making Flanders autonomous when it comes to taxation and social security. That would generate 7.5 billion euros. The party believes the rest can come from savings on the "asylum bill”.

Vlaams Belang also wants to limit access to social security to people who have legally resided in the country for at least eight years, have worked full-time for three years and know B1-level Dutch.

Greens see longer holidays

The Flemish ecologists of Groen have different matters on their mind.  They want to extend statutory minimum holiday to 25 days instead of 20. "May 1 has long since ceased to be the day of the socialists. We too have proposals that are social and cater for people on the labour market, especially the most vulnerable groups" said green deputy prime minister Petra De Sutter

Currently, employers in Belgium are obliged to grant a minimum of 20 days of holiday. "We dangle at the very bottom of the European average," Ms De Sutter said. "Countries like France, Denmark and Luxembourg apply a minimum of 25 days of statutory leave. We want to that too."

"500,000 people in our country are absent from work for more than a year. This is due to work stress and burn-outs. So you end up in a vicious circle: by making people work longer and harder, and not allowing this kind of oxygen, more and more people drop out. That has a huge social economic cost of 12 billion euros."

As to funding Ms De Sutter says everything revolves around efficiency. "We are thinking of a wealth tax, allowing the extremely rich to make an extra contribution. We also want to make polluters pay. We are in a transition towards CO2 neutrality, but we still give 20 billion in fossil fuel subsidies a year. You can make savings there."