Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau has called on Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) to put forward a "fairer" proposal to find an agreement to balance the budget.
Rousseau suggested a larger contribution from millionaires to curb the deficit, and stated that moving to a provisional budget wouldn't be the end of the world.
He made the remarks shortly before the government held a round of talks Tuesday evening to find an agreement to reduce the budget deficit in 2027 by €10 billion. De Wever initially aimed to submit the budget by 13 October, but failed to find an agreement. The Prime Minister made another push to find an agreement last week, but Vooruit minister Frank Vandenbroucke protested what he called "messy overnight work."
The coalition decided to take the rest of the week to prepare the budget tables and hold meetings between party experts.
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"It's up to the Prime Minister to find a swift agreement," Conner Rousseau told Villa Politica. "Just make the proposal fairer."
In practical terms, this means that millionaires or the ultra-rich must make a greater contribution. “Something really will have to change. You shouldn’t have to look to pensioners or the healthcare sector for every euro from large fortunes,” he said.
Whether this takes the form of a millionaire’s tax or something else is of little consequence to Rousseau. “As long as it gets the job done.”
In case an agreement for next year is not found by the end of the month, De Wever will have to use provisional, monthly budgets to govern. The Prime Minister has repeatedly spoken out against the idea of using them, as it would mark the second year in a row his government had to rely on provisional budgets.
"Provisional twelfths aren’t the end of the world," Rousseau responds. "What’s more important is that it’s a good and fair agreement." De Wever had responded to questions from MP's about measures to lower vacation money for pensioners and indexing of salaries that he "understood their worries," but that a debt crisis would be "the end of the world."
Rousseau would prefer to avoid a government collapse and any subsequent elections. "Let’s avoid elections. Nobody wants that," said the party leader.
