“Working people must always be rewarded. An index jump, as proposed by the employers' organisation Voka, is therefore a bad idea,” says MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez. “I want a ‘workers' index’, through which employees see their net wages rise without companies having to pay social contributions on it.”
“For every hundred euros an employer pays for a worker, seventy euros go to the state coffers through social contributions and taxes,” explains Mr Bouchez. “Wages in our country are certainly not too high, but the labour cost for employers is. With a ‘workers' index’, we protect the purchasing power of those who work and improve our companies' competitiveness by reducing taxes on labour. You cannot ask people to all work and then impose an index jump.”
The MR President also wants to counter rising energy prices. “We need a permanent system in which excise duties and VAT automatically fall, so that pump prices, for example, cannot exceed two euros. The same principle applies to gas, by the way. Due to the international situation, there will be even more price fluctuations in the coming years, which we can absorb this way.”
Georges-Louis Bouchez does not want new taxes and continues to insist on a serious reduction in public spending: “Every year, the state spends 330 billion euros. There are too many public buildings, the SNCB can do better with less money, and we have too many structures and policy layers. At the same time, our spending on pensions and defence is rising. This is not sustainable. You don't show courage by taxing, but by reforming and saving within the state.”