Georges-Louis Bouchez, MR President, was the political guest on Bel RTL's morning show this Tuesday. He took the opportunity to address several issues, from the communitarianism eating away at Brussels, to the reform of local media and the formation of the future Brussels government.
Local media: a reform deemed essential
Georges-Louis Bouchez welcomed the reform aimed at streamlining local media, put forward by Jacqueline Galant: “This is the bare minimum. We will certainly go further than what has been submitted.”
He highlighted the high cost of these local TV channels, nearly €50 million a year, for a very limited audience, at a time when Netflix and Amazon Prime dominate the audiovisual landscape. For the MR President, local news should be delivered more through social media and the internet, while ensuring public money is respected.
Left-wing “coalition” for Brussels: “The bankruptcy coalition”
On the political situation in Brussels, Georges-Louis Bouchez did not mince his words, calling the PS-led coalition the “bankruptcy coalition”. According to him, with a deficit of €2.6 billion out of a €7 billion budget, it is illusory to expect reforms from the PTB, a prospective partner. He also denounced the presence of Fouad Ahidar, elected on the Dutch-speaking quota without speaking the language, calling it a “pure misuse of the institutional system”.
Institutional deadlocks and the search for solutions
Georges-Louis Bouchez also expressed surprise at the PS's veto against the N-VA, the Prime Minister's party, making it impossible to form a Flemish majority. He announced that, starting tomorrow, a meeting will be held with all democratic parties (excluding the extremes and the PS, which refused to read the MR's political project for Brussels) to try to unblock the situation and move towards a new Brussels government.