MPs in Belgium’s Federal Parliament have voted by a majority of 20 to back the Federal Government in a confidence vote. 77 federal MPs, all of whom from the 5 parties that make up the Federal coalition voted to back the government, while 57 opposition MPs voted against. The vote was preceded by almost 20 hours of debate on the Federal Government’s policy statement.
The Federal Government’s multi-year budget agreement involves cuts and measures to generate additional income totaling 9.2 billion euro. One of the measures is a cap on index-linked increases in wages in 2026 and 2028. In both these years those that earn more than 4,000 euro gross will only see the first 4,000 euro of their salary increased to match inflation. Index-linked increases to pensions and benefits will be capped after 2,000 euro. Other measures include getting the long-term sick back to work, a number of VAT increases and an increase in excise duties on natural gas.
These were the measures that attracted the most attention during the long budget debate. The opposition was unanimous in its criticism of the efforts required of the middle class.
In his reply following the debate, the Federal Prime Minister Bart De Wever (nationalist) stated that further efforts will be needed in the next legislature to achieve a sustainable budget, but that the Federal Government has now succeeded in stabilising the deficit.
“The rot has been stopped”, Mr De Wever said. He went on to deny that the tax burden is increasing, stating that will fall by 0.5% of GDP, or 3.5 billion euro, while expenditure will fall by more than 1%. In policies had remained unchanged there would have been a 1.7%, according to the Prime Minister. “How is this government restructuring? By significantly reducing expenditure and lowering taxes across the board. Those are the figures. That is the truth”, Mr De Wever told parliament.