As negotiations to fill a €10 billion deficit in Belgium's Federal Government's budget have started, the leader of the Francophone liberal MR party Georges-Louis Bouchez has proposed going beyond the targets set by Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA).
Revealing his plans to Sudinfo, Bouchez proposed cutting the federal budget by €17 billion while not raising any taxes. The liberal leader has previously protested against solving the budget deficit by raising taxes, blocking a reform of VAT rates last week during a debate between Francophone party leaders on RTL.
"Don't you worry, there will be no increase in VAT," Bouchez promised. Raising income taxes and delaying the planned reform of tax-free income are not options for the French-speaking liberals either.
While he does not provide exact data for his plans, Bouchez pointed to a number of places where he believes government spending could be curbed in health care and administration.
'More ambitious' liberals
He wants to target the "colossal abuse within the health care sector", saying that too many people profit from increased reimbursement while not needing it. Hospitals should be slimmed down, he said, as their operational field is too expansive.
Bouchez also proposed a governmental diet, leading to smaller parliaments, fewer ministers, and more municipal mergers. The provincial government structure should be eliminated entirely, according to him.
The number of civil servants, meanwhile, should be reduced drastically, which would be realised by the implementation of artificial intelligence.
Smaller parts of his plan include closing several train stations and courthouses, streamlining the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and repatriating undocumented prisoners.
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His plan received support from his Flemish counterpart Frédéric De Gucht (Anders). The leader of the Dutch-speaking liberals said that he supports any plan that fixes the financial situation in Belgium.
"It is clear that we liberals are more ambitious than the rest: less state intervention, fewer rules and more trust are the only way to get the economy growing again," De Gucht said on Wednesday. "From the opposition, Anders will support any initiative that gets our country back on track financially."
While these are only the first few days of the budget negotiations, this proposal is not Bouchez's first demarche. On Tuesday, the leader of the Christian-Democrats (CD&V) part, Sammy Mahdi, blocked the idea of eliminating or limiting the company car scheme, after the idea had been suggested leading into the negotiations.
Mahdi said he would "swallow a lightbulb whole if the company car scheme was eliminated," contradicting his own party's minister Peter Van Peteghem. As Finance Minister, Van Peteghem had suggested that the scheme could end up being eliminated, but was swiftly corrected by his party leader.
Trade unions ABBV-FGTB and ACV-CSC have announced a protest on 9 October to warn the government against making decisions that cross what they call "red lines". They warn that increasing VAT, changing indexation of salaries or annualising working hours could trigger new strikes.
