The French-speaking liberal party MR has threatened to block a key instalment of funding for the Brussels Regional Housing Corporation (BGHM) unless Francophone socialist from PS Lotfi Mostefa steps down as chair of Anderlechtse Haard, following corruption allegations.
The warning was announced by party leader Georges-Louis Bouchez after Mostefa came under scrutiny following a journalistic VRT Pano investigation.
The BGHM is due to receive €131 million from the Brussels Region this year as part of a €400 million recapitalisation over four years set out in the coalition agreement.
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The agency oversees and monitors the region’s social housing companies, including Anderlechtse Haard, and also finances housing construction projects.
A source close to the matter said on Thursday that, without the promised funds, the BGHM could struggle to pay its bills.
A judicial investigation is under way into the allegations raised in the Pano investigation. Even so, Mostefa, who is also a PS alderman, was re-elected this summer as chair of Anderlechtse Haard’s board.
MR said that reappointment was “unacceptable” and justified its decision to freeze the funding.
The French-speaking liberal party said it wanted to “force the Brussels PS to face up to its responsibilities and compel it to act”. It added that no new funds should be released until the situation at Anderlechtse Haard is resolved and sufficient guarantees are in place on governance, transparency and sound management.
According to MR, the decision was taken “in consultation with Brussels Minister-President Boris Dilliès, who will also implement it”, a claim his office said was correct.
Although the additional funding is included in the coalition agreement, MR said that “other developments” since then had changed the situation.
Brussels Housing Minister Karine Lalieux of the PS declined to comment. Her office said the matter had not yet been put before the Brussels government and was not expected to be discussed at Thursday’s cabinet meeting.
The radical-left PTB-PVDA has accused MR of “holding social housing tenants hostage”.
“Taking social tenants or people waiting for social housing hostage in order to settle political scores is simply scandalous,” said Françoise De Smedt, the party’s group leader in the Brussels Parliament.
She said 60,000 families in Brussels are already waiting for social housing and argued that they should not be used as “pawns” by either PS or MR.
“These Brussels residents are not pawns of the PS or the MR,” De Smedt said. “They are people simply waiting to live in decent, affordable housing, and the BGHM needs that money to meet those expectations.”
She added that social housing funding must be “protected from political games”.
