'Two months' salary already': Brussels MP denounces parliamentary wages

'Two months' salary already': Brussels MP denounces parliamentary wages
A coalition agreement was Credit: © Belga

A member of the Flemish labour party (PDVA), took to Facebook at the weekend to denounce his own salary wages less than a month after taking the oath in the Brussels regional parliament, saying members of parliament (MPs) there had already received at least €10,000 for doing "nothing."

"As a Brussels member of parliament and group chairman I received a net salary of €7,400 per week after the oath was taken," Jan Busselen, who leads the Dutch-speaking labour party's group in the parliament, wrote in a Facebook post.

He said that he had received his salary "without having attended any committee or plenary meeting," since the negotiations for the formation of a Brussels government are still inconclusive.

"Seven days later, that salary was repaid again!" his post read. "So all members of parliament have already earned between €10,000 and €14,000 without having done anything."

https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10218996595721877&set=a.4801613354262

Referring to the recent protests over low wages and poor working conditions recently carried out by the region's fire brigades, emergency responsive teams, medical professionals and "other public sciences," Brusselen's said his PDVA party wanted to work to halve parliamentary wages.

"We will continue working for a normal wage of €2,000 per month," he said, adding that the wage surplus would be then transferred to the party's coffers.

In response to the MP's comments, a political scientist told Het Nieuwsblad that Brusselen's stance fit the party's anti-elite, "populist" discourse.

"Now that they have more and more MPs joining that elite, they must prove that they have not forgotten their roots," he said to the outlet.

Sinadert said that the labourer's idea to transfer the rest of individual MPs wages to the party was not really beneficial for taxpayers, adding that for the average Belgian, a PDVA member still cost "just as much as" as any other party's MP.

Gabriela Galindo

The Brussels Times


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