On Monday evening on RTBF, Georges-Louis Bouchez, MR President, and Raoul Hedebouw, PTB President, clashed over the country's major economic and social reforms, announced following the budget agreement.
Georges-Louis Bouchez repeated that the general rise in the retirement age to 67 was a lie from the left designed only to instil fear, stressing that early retirement without penalty remains guaranteed for strenuous careers, such as nurses, police officers, firefighters or teachers. He added that Belgian practice remains in line with the standard in most European countries, and even more favourable than some foreign examples.
As a defender of budgetary rigour, the MR President recalled that pensions cost €66 billion a year and rise by one billion every year. For the MR, promising retirement at 60, as proposed by the PTB, threatens the balance of the system and ultimately increases the bill for social security. He contrasted a “Belgium that reforms and works” with a Belgium that “blocks and stirs up fear”, pointing to the lack of any concrete proposal from the left and the need to support growth above all.
On taxation and climate, Georges-Louis Bouchez recalled that Raoul Hedebouw's PTB was the party of tax.
“We achieved €32 billion in budgetary efforts, 80% of which through spending cuts.” Making Belgium attractive again means work, not tax increases, unlike the model supported by the PTB!