Flemish liberals Open VLD's proposal for a €24 billion savings plan three months before the elections is "shameless", according to the Flemish nationalists N-VA.
"It's as if they did it for fun. This €24 billion corresponds to the sum needed due to the De Croo government's budgetary mismanagement", declared N-VA leader Bart De Wever on Sunday on the VRT programme "De Zevende Dag".
The nationalist leader was sceptical about Belgian Prime Minister Alexander De Croo's ability to impose such a plan on the other political parties in his coalition. He was referring to statements made by PS president Paul Magnette on Friday in "De Afspraak" (VRT).
Instead, Magnette suggests the money can be recouped with a new range of taxes. According to De Wever, Magnette is visibly ridiculing the Flemish liberals. "De Croo stated that being the seventh party in the majority risks becoming a mop. Magnette has now wrung that mop in their face," stated the right-wing politician.
In addition to the PS and PTB, Flemish parties such as Groen and Vooruit are also proposing to increase the contributions of the (super)rich.
As a believer in trickle-down economics, De Wever described these proposals as "popular deception". These wealth taxes always start with the rich, according to De Wever. "But the rich are not going to pay this, and then we come to the middle class. These are the people who save, work and are entrepreneurs or, in other words, the Flemings", he said.
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While Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon (N-VA) once again reopened the debate on a possible collaboration between the N-VA and Vlaams Belang, De Wever reiterated that this discussion was irrelevant in his eyes.
"Vlaams Belang will not participate at federal level in any case. Whether they are part of the Flemish Government or not will not make any difference if the federal Vivaldi II is relaunched," said De Wever. "I feel absolutely no connection with this party. I am more or less against everything they say".
De Wever wants to make his party "unavoidable" and that "at federal level, a vote for Vlaams Belang is a lost vote anyway," he argued.
