The former Speaker of the Belgian Chamber, Siegfried Bracke does not see his Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) party governing with Vlaams Belang.
“That's for the simple reason that there are too many differences between us, just as there are between us and the Socialist Party (PS),” he said in De Zevende Dag.
However, N-VA is still right to hold discussions with the extreme right party in Flanders because the sanitary cordon imposed around Vlaams Belang (VB) is a “concept from another era,” added Bracke, who announced his retirement from political life on Friday.
The move by the CD&V and Open Vld parties to close all doors to the VB immediately after the election was, he said, “neither intelligent nor wise”.
Bracke, who was also present on Sunday on the ‘C’est pas tous les jours dimanche’ programme on RTL-TV1, reiterated the N-VA’s call for confederalism, which he described as the “only way to resolve the differing trends between the north and south of the country.”
"The only problem with confederalism is that it’s coming from the N-VA,” he said. “At some time, it will come. I don’t know when, but it will come.”
The Brussels Times
