The dramatic state of the Belgian budget is the result of the absence of reforms since the Swedish coalition.
The Vivaldi coalition was a government of standstill that spent money it didn't have.
That's why we have had to block so often. With analysts unable to see past the squabbles to understand their deeper cause.
But the deeper reality is that Belgium's structure has been derailing for more than 30 years. 30 years without real and sufficient reform of pensions, of the state structure to reduce fragmentation, and of the labour market.
That is what this government is trying to correct, but we must go further and more boldly, without compromise. Whatever it costs us. This is our responsibility to the country.
We must reduce public spending. That is why we can no longer afford to:
- Have three times as many justice buildings as the Netherlands
- Have 60 stations with fewer than 100 people boarding and alighting per day
- Have almost half of long-term sick people who are not actually sick and could work
- Have hospitals located 100 metres apart
- Have special pension schemes
- Have so many politicians that their number must be more than halved, including by abolishing structures such as the provinces, the Senate, three-quarters of Brussels' structures, but also by merging municipalities
- Give subsidies for anything and everything, such as hundreds of thousands of euros for... trade union training funded by the state
- Have such a large state structure. We must centralise, reduce and stop the dispersal of power, which is one of the main causes of our powerlessness and our debt, with federalisation and regions spending on too many useless policies.
- Have trade unions pay out unemployment benefits and health funds pay for healthcare, with state money, without regard for economies of scale or transparency
- Have a civil service four times larger than in the 1960s
- Have so many options in compulsory education, and so many accreditations in higher education
- … and much more.
And this is not at odds with targeted, one-off support to cut fuel taxes for workers! Because lowering taxation is the key to the second pillar of our budgetary recovery: reconnecting with GROWTH!
We must revive industry, reduce the number of regulations, taxation and administrative burdens. We must rehabilitate the economy and the right to create wealth. We must put an end to these absurd degrowth ideas that will impoverish us all.
So this message posted on social media will earn me caricatures and insults once again, but it is nonetheless the only way to save our country and give future generations a future. Today, every child is born with 60,000 euros of debt to pay off our way of life. It's as if we ordered the best on the menu at a restaurant and then called our children to pay the bill.
And no, the solution does not lie in more taxes. Especially not to fund certain structures whose efficiency is never questioned. Tax justice is obviously essential, but for the left it always means more taxes, which we cannot accept. We must realise that we are in a global competition that forces us to finally become efficient.
You will tell me that the MR has been part of every government for a few months now. That's exactly why I'm making this call. I urge my majority partners and colleagues in the parliaments: stop the electoral calculations and ideological blockages. It is the future of the country that we hold in our hands.
It is up to us to decide whether we want to be small-minded politicians or people who will be remembered for their courage. It is more than time.