Belgium’s far-left Worker’s Party (PTB/PVDA) used the Labour Day celebrations as an opportunity to present its plan to “tax the rich,” which would target millionaires’ fortunes.
Their leader Raoul Hedebouw revealed the plans at a party meeting on Rue Annessens in Brussels and stated that they had already tabled the proposal in parliament.
This would place a 1% tax on fortunes above €1 million, 2% above €2 million and 3% above €3 million. According to the party’s calculations, the plan would raise €8 billion for the public purse. The money could be used to boost the national economy and drive public spending.
Hedebouw argued that most Belgians agreed with forcing the country’s richest to be more heavily taxed, stating that “Belgium is a tax hell for workers but a haven for the ultra-rich and the multinationals.”
He continued by saying that “a small club of the super-rich is getting richer and richer, while those who create wealth, the workers, are having a hard time making ends meet.”
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Moreover, the leftist leader stated that he wanted PTB/PVDA to “build a real left-wing alternative in the north as well as in the south of the country” but did not leave without taking a few jabs at Belgium’s centre-left parties.
He took particular aim at Conner Rousseau, who leads Vooruit in Flanders and recently stated that he was open to limiting the benefits of long-term unemployed workers. Hedebouw criticised his comments and accused of him “wanting to punish the unemployed instead of tackling the super-rich.”
