Yvan Verougstraete, the chairman of the French-speaking centrist party Les Engagés, wants a 0.3% tax on the movable assets of “the five percent richest Belgians”.
The party will make the case for this measure during the upcoming federal budget negotiations, Verougstraete said on Sunday evening on the channel RTL-TVi.
The party chairman wants the measure to apply to people “who have more than €500,000 in their bank accounts, in cash or in shares. That corresponds to the richest 5 percent.”
“If you look at the main stock market indices today, you see that they have risen by 5% since the beginning of the year. We could say: ‘You keep 4.7%, and that 0.3 becomes a contribution’,” he told RTL.
According to Verougstraete, the measure could yield between €1 billion and €2 billion annually. He also says that the idea has already been discussed with Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
The party chairman believes the measure can pass if it is accompanied by “profound reforms” and a reduction in expenditure.
People are willing to make efforts when they see that everyone else has to, he said. “We have asked for efforts from job seekers, teachers, and pensioners. We are going to ask for them from the people with the deepest pockets as well.”
'Economic madness'
The president of the Francophone liberal MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez, made no secret on Monday of his strong disapproval of the Engagés party’s proposal.
“It’s the state that needs to slim down. Not the pockets of those who create the country’s wealth,” he declared on X.
The federal government has begun work on redefining a multi-year budget trajectory. The effort will be considerable, with an amount ranging from €7 to €10 billion under discussion. The governor of the National Bank even mentioned a figure of no less than €14 billion 10 days ago.
“This tax frenzy must stop. And if even a centrist party is proposing more radical measures than the communist PTB, it proves how deeply the destruction of the economy is entrenched in the political world,” stated Bouchez, who also pointed to “economic madness.”
“We need investors in this country to create jobs. We mustn’t drive them away! Everywhere such a tax has been created, it has been a resounding failure,” he stressed.
