After over 600 days of impasse in efforts to form a new Brussels regional government the Flemish liberal party Anders (formerly Open VLD) has agreed to participate in negotiations following an invite from Francophone liberal leader Jean-Louis Bouchez (MR). The decision means the Flemish liberals are no longer tying their fate to Bart De Wever’s Flemish nationalist N-VA that has not been invited and have dropped their insistence on N-VA taking part. Anders is demanding a balanced budget by 2029
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Flemish liberals to join 7-way talks on new Brussels government, no longer tie their fate to Flemish nationalist N-VA
Colin Clapson
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MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez yesterday invited the Francophone socialists of PS and centrists of Les Engagés as well as the Flemish ecologists of Groen, liberals of Anders, socialists of Vooruit and Christian democrats of CD&V to Brussels government negotiations. These seven parties have a majority in both language groups.
All parties have now accepted the invite.
Anders, formerly Open VLD, had so far refused to negotiate if the N-VA was not at the table. That is to change, at least if a number of conditions are met, says Anders leader Frédéric De Gucht.
‘We have a number of minimum requirements, red lines so to speak. We need a majority among Dutch-speaking MPs in the Brussels parliament. The budget must be balanced by 2029. Tax incentives are needed to keep the middle classes in Brussels. We also want a decisive approach to security and cleanliness in Brussels and the complicated institutional structure in the capital urgently needs to be simplified .’
‘Anders’ is not so ‘different’
Flemish minister for Brussels Cieltje Van Achter (Flemish nationalist N-VA) says she is not amused. The Francophone socialists are deciding who can take part and are refusing the reforms that Brussels urgently needs. In reference to the liberals’ new name 'Anders' that means ‘different’ in English Van Achter says the liberals 'now appear not to be so different'.