Georges-Louis Bouchez welcomed the Trends editorial team this week for a long interview, also released as a podcast. An opportunity to discuss, among other things, private employment and budgetary discipline at the heart of the liberal project.
A right-wing stance that stands tall
Georges-Louis Bouchez champions an unapologetic right-wing stance: “When the right is clear about its values, order, individual responsibility, work, support for business, it mechanically dries up the space for the far right.”
Brussels: an unapologetic liberal victory
For Brussels, the MR President looks back on this political victory: the review of Good Move, targeted tax cuts, stronger support for jobseekers and a path towards budgetary balance in a region that is financially at the end of its rope.
The MR, now leading the region, is enforcing a more pragmatic approach for a “city-region” that must be streamlined (merging tools, better governance) and finally capitalise on its status as a European capital to attract investment.
Too much government, not enough private jobs
On the economic front, for Georges-Louis Bouchez, adding new taxes is over! For the MR, the priority is to cut public spending, simplify regulations, speed up permits and bring industry back to create private jobs, especially in Wallonia and Brussels.
RTBF: a public broadcaster in need of reform
The conversation with Trends also gave our President the chance to reaffirm that RTBF, in its current form, must be reformed. €350 million in public funding that distorts the market and stifles media pluralism to the detriment of private players.
He advocates an alternative model where the public service mission would be funded but could be entrusted, as in Luxembourg, to several operators, to guarantee genuine diversity of voices rather than reinforcing a quasi-monopoly.