Before a hall full of activists, elected representatives, entrepreneurs and citizens, the Mouvement Réformateur launched its 2026 New Year's tour this Sunday, 4 January, in La Louvière, in a Hainaut that symbolises the economic and social challenges the party intends to tackle over the coming years.
From the very outset of Minister-President Adrien Dolimont's introduction, the tone was set: in a tense political climate, being liberal and committed is “no walk in the park”, but that is precisely why we must remain united, proud and determined. The Minister-President stressed this need for cohesion and commitment, while denouncing the daily stream of falsehoods aimed at the action of governments where the MR is present, particularly in Wallonia. He called for 2026 to become “the year of the triumph of information”, inviting members to read the talking points, check the facts and debate everywhere with everyone, in the face of misinformation about the oxygen plan, the reform of registration duties, the end of the François plan or the employment rate. For him, change in Wallonia is essential if the region is to become a driving force in Europe again, and the political goal must be clear: “in 2026, let's crush poverty”.
As a guest of honour, entrepreneur and industrialist Roland Duchâtelet recalled that the industrial world generates an essential share of collective wellbeing and that many Belgian companies have successfully globalised over recent decades. He notably cited the example of Mélexis, active in semiconductors for the automotive industry, born at the historic turning point of 1989, the year the Berlin Wall fell and markets opened up, to illustrate how Belgium managed to seize the opportunities of a more open economy. Looking back at the waves of relocation, he pointed to the responsibility of excessive taxation on labour and posed a question central to the MR: which taxes are good and which are bad in a country that wants to remain competitive and attractive for industrial investment?
The panel, moderated with Minister for the Middle Classes, Self-Employed and SMEs Éléonore Simonet, architect Cyril Rousseaux (Architect & Founder, Bureau d'architecture Carré 7) and Vincent Michel (Director of GO4ZERO and member of the executive committee, Holcim Belgium), then highlighted the very concrete challenges facing entrepreneurs. Cyril Rousseaux asked: “Entrepreneurship is sometimes seen as complex and risky: what must change quickly to encourage more young people to set up an SME in Belgium?”, pointing to administrative burdens, legal uncertainty and tax pressure that can discourage aspiring entrepreneurs. Vincent Michel, for his part, recalled that SMEs are being asked to innovate, decarbonise and invest quickly, and put a direct question to public authorities: is the public authority prepared to accept more risk so that only a handful of large groups do not end up being the sole ones able to finance their transition? A contribution from the audience about the absence of industrial free zones in Hainaut, inspired by the French model, opened up another front: how can targeted taxation be used to attract new investors, revive reindustrialisation, attract families and revitalise towns like Soignies, where industrial zones are still waiting for their projects?
To close, the speech by MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez gave the morning its political direction, combining the defence of freedom to debate, socio-economic reforms and an institutional vision. He denounced the attitude of certain violent fringe groups attempting to prevent liberal events from taking place, recalling that there can be no “no-go zones” in Belgium for a democratic party, and calling on all democratic forces to reject this slide. In contrast, he highlighted the courage of protesters in Iran, ready to risk their lives for a liberal vision of society, and stated that this courage must inspire the action of the MR and the European Union, which must link the defence of values with reclaiming their sovereignty.
This sovereignty, he explains, rests on three forms of autonomy: energy, through the defence of nuclear power; military, in an unstable world; and industrial, by breaking with the triad of “super-taxation, super-regulation and socialism” which claims to share wealth before it has been created. Within this framework, the President defends time-limiting unemployment benefits as a major cultural reform, one that changes our relationship with solidarity, puts work back at the centre and offers a path to recovery for regions like La Louvière, marked by long-term unemployment. He asserts that solidarity must go both ways, and that the state can no longer afford to finance on credit a model that traps entire neighbourhoods in inaction and resignation.
The MR President also challenges the coherence of the left's rhetoric on taxation, citing the example of mutual health funds, which hold assets worth several billion euros and enjoy a more favourable tax regime than other economic players. He proposes subjecting them to the same taxes as companies, which he says would free up resources to halve the tax on labour in the first year of employment, in order to give people entering the labour market real starting capital. But he reminds that there will be no tax cuts without a reduction in public spending, and calls on MR representatives at all levels of government to reject the easy option of raising taxes, drawing inspiration from the Netherlands, which has reduced the number of levels of government and streamlined its public structures.
Following on from this, Georges-Louis Bouchez commits to a line of ambitious institutional reforms: abolishing the political level of the provinces, merging municipalities and CPAS, and aiming for Walloon municipalities of at least 15,000 inhabitants to achieve substantial economies of scale. He notes that this reform would cost the MR in terms of mandates, since the party is currently well ahead in the number of mayors, but recalls that the goal of a liberal party is not to accumulate positions, but to provide citizens with efficient service and to “give them back their money”. On security and immigration, he argues that “the offender should become the payer”, for the removal of people staying illegally, for non-Belgian prisoners to serve their sentences in their countries of origin, and for stricter conditions for access to nationality, presented as an honour to be earned rather than a mere automatic right.
Finally, the MR President brings the message back to the essentials: not being intimidated, not apologising for reforming, not giving in to the comfort of inaction, but fully standing behind the decisions taken (time-limiting unemployment, reducing public spending, tackling insecurity, putting industry back at the heart of the Belgian model), which correspond exactly to what citizens voted for. He calls on activists to stay the course over time, recalling that a great party “is not built in the euphoria of an election night, but in the daily hard work of reforms”, and concludes by wishing everyone, for this year 2026, to be happy, to be courageous, and to be more proud than ever to be liberals.