Former DéFI president François Desmet said on Sunday that he has no regrets for refusing to align his party with Les Engagés, part of the “Arizona coalition” government he accused of acting rashly and without dialogue.
Speaking as he opened DéFI’s “Dare the Future” congress in Woluwe-Saint-Pierre, Desmet addressed party members gathered to adopt an updated charter of values.
“If we had said yes to Les Engagés, we would today be part of this horrible government,” he asserted. He criticised its approach to excluding 180,000 job seekers from the system without focusing on training or job creation, while accusing it of regionalising poverty and passing the financial burden onto Walloon and Brussels residents.
He continued by lambasting Les Engagés for “closing their eyes to penalised sick individuals who are left unsupported, or asylum-seeking families forced to sleep in the streets.” Desmet also condemned the coalition for enabling a nationalist Flemish party “bent on dismantling the country piece by piece,” starting with what he described as the destruction of basic solidarity measures like food aid and cold-weather assistance plans.
Desmet, now a federal MP, was sharply critical of the “Arizona coalition,” which he claimed “lacks humanist values.” He maintained that none of its members could avoid accountability for its actions.
“Every day, this government adopts measures that stray further from the original liberalism which defends rights and minority groups,” he said. He also denounced what he called “unprecedented attacks on checks and balances” and predicted that the federal government’s current leadership would cause “immense social damage without solving economic, social, or climate issues.”
The congress began with a clear tone: DéFI intends to position itself as a progressive, centre-liberal party committed to solidarity and empowerment. “We will remain uncompromising on our values,” declared the former party leader.
