A series of recent attacks by politicians from the Reformist Movement (MR) against Francophone media companies has sparked a serious political scandal and raised fears that the liberal party is trying to stoke a culture war in Belgium.
The nearly month-long saga was referred to Europe’s top human rights body, the Council of Europe, last week, with a full day of debate expected on Tuesday inside the French-speaking Community Parliament (FWB) in Brussels.
The controversy arose from an MR event in Wallonia on 13 January. Regional Walloon Media Minister Jacqueline Galant, sitting next to her close ally and MR leader George-Louis Bouchez, launched a fierce attack on the French-speaking public broadcaster RTBF, accusing it of bias.
In her comments, she accused RTBF of still being full of "lefties" and said that "it was a good thing" its directors were going to step down at the end of the year.
"And so, we hope, obviously, that with these two changes we can bring a slightly different line that will go to the other side of the political spectrum," Galant said during the event, in comments reported by RTBF.
Galant even attacked the president of the RTBF Board of Directors, Joëlle Milquet, who is also a member of the centrist party Les Engagés (MR’s ally and fellow coalition partner in Wallonia). She accused her of being "more to the left than the left" – and secretly colluding with the Socialist Party (PS).
Screenshot from video of controversial event with Galant and Bouchez on 13 January
MR-affiliated board members at RTBF will work to correct things, she claimed. "Our administrators have an essential role to play. Our leader (Georges-Louis Bouchez, ed) has chosen people who want to make a difference," she told the crowd of MR activists.
She echoed comments made by Bouchez to call for a review of RTBF's public media funding, citing these allegations of bias, which the public broadcaster firmly rejects. "We accept criticism, but not interference," an RTBF statement responded.
Strong reactions
The comments by Wallonia’s media minister and her party leader have sparked fury from Belgian and international media organisations, as well as politicians.
The Minister-President of the Francophone Community, Elisabeth Degryse (Les Engagés), came out strongly in the aftermath, calling Galant’s comments "insulting" and "disgraceful".
"A Minister of Media is expected to guarantee respect for press freedom and independence," she said in a statement.
"At a time when a new Chief Executive Officer is being recruited, and work on the new management contract is about to begin... a public service media outlet must be impartial, independent, and fair," Degryse stressed.
Illustration picture shows the transmission tower of Flemish public broadcasting company VRT and French-speaking public broadcasting RTBF, in Brussels, Friday 22 April 2011. Credit: Belga
The PS leader in Wallonia, Martin Casier MP, also condemned the comments in the Walloon Parliament.
"It seriously shows that MR is having increasing difficulty with the foundations of democracy. A Minister of Media cannot ‘shift the editorial line of RTBF on the political spectrum’. Nor for any other media outlet!" he protested.
'Illiberal' campaign
Galant's remarks also attracted the attention of Belgium's French-speaking Association of Professional Journalists (AJP), which stated that they constitute an "unacceptable interference" in the independence of the public service, while also discrediting the work of its teams.
In its statement, the AJP also demanded an end to the "illiberal campaign against RTBF and its journalists".
The same week as the Galant scandal flared up, Bouchez also accused local media BX1 of not respecting editorial independence, describing it as "the PS's television station."
This also provoked strong rebuttals from the media company and journalist associations.
BX1 reminded the MR leader that 10 representatives of MR have been guests on the channel since 12 January, compared to eight of PS. They say the MR leader himself was invited three times, but that "his spokesperson never bothered to respond to those invitations."
Fourth complaint against MR
This is not the first time that the liberals have come under fire for criticising the RTBF and the media.
Critics have often described Bouchez's communication style as inspired by US President Donald Trump. On one social media post from October, he referred to RTBF as a "supplier of left-wing fake news for so many years... deplorable."
Indeed, relations between the French-speaking public broadcaster and the largest Francophone party have been tense since the beginning of this legislative term.
Minister Jacqueline Galant pictured during a plenary session of the parliament of the Federation Wallonie-Bruxelles in Brussels, Wednesday 19 November 2025. Credit: Belga / Eric Lalmand
Both Bouchez and Galant were condemned by the Council of Europe in 2024 over posts on social media accusing the public broadcaster of bias over a report entitled: "How to be less racist? Estelle looks at systemic racism and the role of white people in eradicating it."
Another case saw Bouchez physically threaten a journalist, asking him to remove an article which appeared in Le Vif, alleging that an MR party vehicle was regularly used by Bouchez and his partner with a "Person with Reduced Mobility" (PRM) card, sparking another Council of Europe notification.
Last Wednesday, the European Federation of Journalists (FEJ) issued yet another notification to the Council of Europe's platform for the protection of journalism over Galant's comments, noting that it was the fourth Belgian report about a violation of press freedom by MR representatives.
MR did not respond to requests for comment from The Brussels Times.
