A federal coalition with the Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) is simply impossible, Ecolo repeated on Thursday in the wake of statements by the head of the Parti Socialiste (PS), Elio Di Rupo.
“It’s not a wish, intention or futile promise,” Ecolo co-presidents Zakia Khattabi and Jean-Marc Nollet said in a press release. “We are repeating it loudly, strongly and publicly: everything opposes us to the nationalists with such intensity that imagining a federal coalition with them, in any form whatsoever, is purely and simply impossible.”
The French-speaking Green party also recalled the criticisms it had made throughout the previous Mouvement Réformateur/N-VA administration.
"For five years the MR/N-VA Government divided and weakened this country by mishandling our co-existence, by ignoring climate issues and undoing our solidarity system,” the Ecolo leaders stressed. “We cannot pretend today that all this did not occur and that it would not happen again tomorrow with the N-VA back at the helm.”
Queried on Thursday on La Première, Di Rupo had declined to exclude any coalition formula with regard to the federal government. He said he did not wish to govern with the N-VA, but felt that forming a federal government “without having to deal with institutional issues, could be another matter.”
However, the N-VA has always excluded any discussion with the PS unless it has to do with negotiating confederalism.
The Brussels Times
