The Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB) is not calling for a new reform of the State, when previous modifications have not been implemented, but is ready to reflect on the future, FWB Prime Minister Pierre-Yves Jeholet said on Friday.
“The Wallonia-Brussels Federation is not calling for a new reform of the State,” he said on the occasion of the festival of the Francophone entity. “Of course, we can – and even must – always reflect on tomorrow; because nothing is ever eternal; because to reform is to move forward; because to reorganise is often to gain in effectiveness.”
“But slow and steady wins the race, and the Belgian team has not yet finished incorporating all the consequences linked to the 6th reform of the State,” Jeholet continued. “So, let’s get to work with competence and effectiveness. Then, we shall evaluate. We’ll doubtless still have to adjust, correct, improve. And we’ll do that.”
The Federation “embodies the union of the French speakers of this country,” its new Prime Minister said. This “requires permanent, frank and constructive consultation and dialogue” with the prime ministers of other regional governments, and the current and future federal prime minister, he added.
This mission is incumbent upon the heads of government and not “others”, he explained in an apparent allusion to the function of liaising between the Francophone entities that the Brussels negotiators had given Olivier Maingain, but which the Mouvement Reformateur “buried” in Wallonia and the FWB. That “would weaken our institution and add to the complexity at a time when our fellow citizens need transparency and efficacity,” he argued.
Like Mr. Jeholet, the Speaker of the FWB’s parliament, Rudy Demotte, warned against the populist surge in the parliamentary assemblies, while welcoming the absence of extreme-right legislators in the Francophone parliament.
“Seventy-five years ago, democracy triumphed after being vanquished by force of arms but, before that, by the ballot,” Demotte said. “Three-quarters of a century later, there is no extreme-right legislator in our parliamentary assembly, no legislator who espouses the exclusionary ideologies that have led us to the unspeakable.”
“"Neither in Wallonia nor in Brussels have the calls for hate succeeded, even though the context could make them flourish. What a pleasure! What a source of pride! But, above all, what an obligation for each and every one of us!”
The Brussels Times
