Team Fouad Ahidar has refused to participate in talks with Yvan Verougstraete, the facilitator appointed last week to get Brussels coalition negotiations back on track.
Elections 2024
Team Fouad Ahidar rejects talks with Brussels facilitator
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Party leader Fouad Ahidar believes a facilitator must be neutral and points out that Verougstraete, the leader of Les Engagés, has said he does not want to govern with his party.
“The role of a facilitator is clear: to facilitate the talks, bring positions closer together and encourage everyone to lift their vetoes in order to form a strong and representative majority,” said Ahidar.
We refuse to waste our time and that of the people of Brussels on biased discussions where the cards have already been rigged
“But how can one claim to embody the necessary neutrality when one comes in with one’s own vetoes from the outset?”
According to Ahidar, Verougstraete’s mission is doomed to fail. “We refuse to waste our time and that of the people of Brussels on biased discussions where the cards have already been rigged,” he said.
Team Fouad Ahidar, which former socialist Ahidar founded last year, became the second-largest Dutch-speaking party in the capital. It received more than 16 per cent of the vote, winning three seats.
Groen, Vooruit, CD&V and Les Engagés appointed Verougstraete last week as a “facilitator” to unblock the formation of a Brussels government, as negotiations remain deadlocked more than a year after the election.