In an interview with VRT radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De ochtend’, the leader of the Flemish socialist party Vooruit Melissa Depraetere has said that she won’t seek to extend her tenure as party leader. Ms Depraetere told VRT News that she hopes that her predecessor Conner Rousseau will “pick up from where he left off”.
Ms Depraetere became interim leader of Vooruit after Mr Rousseau resigned when it was revealed that he had made sexist and racist comments during a drunken night out.
Ms Depraetere added that despite the “good score” in the elections she has no ambitions to remain party leader. She points to the election of Mr Rousseau, who was the last candidate on Vooruit’s list in East Flanders with 75,000 preference votes, as being a clear signal from voters. “I would like him to be a candidate for the leadership."
However, itis still unclear whether Mr Rousseau will stand for the leadership.
“I have a meeting with him this afternoon. We will see”, Ms Depraetere said.
The leadership elections will get under way next Monday. From then candidates will be able to put their names forward. Mr Depraetere is the Flemish socialists’ chief negotiator in both the Flemish and Federal coalition talks.
Conditions for joining new coalitions
Melissa Depraetere told the VRT that her party will not enter a Flemish government just to continue the policies of the outgoing government. "The people need a change of policy by the Flemish government. The voter has punished the parties in the outgoing coalition, and they no longer have a majority”.
She added that the reason people voted for Vooruit is that they want the next Flemish government to be “more social”. Ms Depraetere hopes that the leader of what will be the largest party in the coalition N-VA, Bart De Wever, gets the message.
At the federal level, Ms Depraetere is looking forward to the King's next move. She says that she intends to be ‘open and constructive’ in any talks that take place. At the same time, she realises that the differences between the parties are great.
The Flemish socialist leader wants there to be “something substantial” regarding care and purchasing on the negotiating table as “the electorate hs given us a mandate for this”.