In a lecture given to politics students at Ghent University (UGent), the Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (Flemish nationalist) has said that if policies remain uncharged the welfare state in Belgium would collapse. He added that the Federal Government has no choice than to implement the reforms listed in the coalition agreement. Prime Minster De Wever spoke for around one and a half hours.
10 years ago Bart De Wever gave a lecture to politics students at UGent to mark the start of the new academic year. A decade ago, he used the lecture to attack the then German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s “Wir schaffen das” (We can do it) policy during the 2015 migration crisis.
This time the theme of the lecture was devoted to the welfare state, a concept that was spearheaded by the post-war German Chancellor Konrad Adenauer and the late President De Gualle of France. “Looking back, we can only conclude that this model has resulted in incredible success, massive growth in prosperity and, in parallel, explosive growth in the welfare state itself”.
Mr De Wever considers prosperity to be the foundation of our welfare state. On this are build the pillars such as health care, care for the elderly and care for the financially disadvantaged. The Belgian Prime Minister’s message was clear: if not enough wealth is created, we can spend more on the welfare state.
He also responded to comments made by the Rector of Ghent University and former Flemish Green politician Petra De Sutter, who, during her introduction to Mr De Wever’s lecture called on the government to provide “sustainable and adequate funding” for higher education. “Redistribution of funds and more money for education can be achieved if we can strengthen the foundation”.
“Unsustainable”
According to Mr De Wever, in recent years we have placed too much emphasis on redistribution of wealth and forgotten to look at the economic fundamentals. “On the left, this has even become a dogma with people questioning growth itself”.
“We must not lose sight of wealth creation. We have done so in the past and government spending has gone off the rails. This is unsustainable.”
“If policies remain unchanged, the welfare state will collapse. That is a mathematical certainty, and it will happen during your lifetime”, he told the students, most of whom are in their late teens or early 20s.
“We are hanging with our heads over an abyss and If we do nothing, we will fall in."
Can we do better?
"We must bring back the spirit that brought industrialisation and prosperity on this continent to unprecedented heights”, Mr De Wever said. Then followed a defence of government policy, the aim of which is, according to the Federal PM to strengthen the foundations of our prosperity. If we fail to do so there will be no room to redistribute wealth.
In a reference to the trade unions’ fierce opposition to the government’s plans, Mr De Wever said that “Are we going to strike and bring everything to a standstill te try and retain things that I can prove with figures have become unsustainable? This isn’t normal and is completely pointless”.