Finding billions of euros is not that difficult, Belgian Socialist Party leader Paul Magnette said on Sunday as he set out proposals to raise up to €20 billion without hitting workers or pensioners.
Magnette was speaking at the French-speaking socialists’ Family Day at Adventure Valley in Durbuy, where around 2,500 people were expected to attend. The park is owned by billionaire Marc Coucke, whom Magnette addressed directly.
“Keep investing in Wallonia, that’s great,” he said. “But that should not stop you paying a little more tax.” He said he was not asking billionaires to “pay huge sums,” but argued that the current system was unfair. “In Belgium, when you work, you pay on average 40% in tax, while billionaires pay half that. That is not right,” he said.
His remarks come ahead of a politically charged autumn, with work on the 2027 federal budget expected to dominate the agenda and tensions likely within the governing majority.
From the opposition benches, the PS accused the federal government of being in “total failure” on the budget, the economy, climate policy and security.
Magnette also took aim at the right over crime. “They give grand lessons, even though all security ministers have been from the right for the past 25 years,” he said. “And we have never seen such a surge in drug trafficking.”
The federal government is seeking to find €10 billion by the end of the legislative term. Magnette said the PS could go much further and argued that the money could be raised through a series of targeted measures.
He proposed annual wage increases of 1%, which he said would bring in €4 billion, spending “a little less on armaments” to save €2 billion, and asking highly profitable sectors such as banking and energy to “contribute a little” for another €2 billion.
He also called for “a little more order” in state aid for businesses, which he said could save €2 billion, and for a tax on large fortunes that he claimed would raise €6 billion.
According to Magnette, the package would generate between €15 billion and €20 billion “without touching workers and pensioners.”
He also mocked Prime Minister Bart De Wever, saying he had “prayed all summer for rain” and that “it did not work.” Magnette rejected De Wever’s claim that there is no alternative, concluding: “We are showing that nothing could be further from the truth.”
