On Tuesday 11 March, Valérie Glatigny was the guest of Fabrice Grosfilley on Bonjour Bruxelles. She discussed the composition of the electoral lists and the cooperation with the Open-VLD.
On Monday evening, the general assembly of the Brussels MR approved its electoral lists. For the legislative elections, the MR and Open-VLD will join forces. Valérie Glatigny, Minister for Higher Education until her resignation for health reasons last summer, will lead the liberal troops. She will be followed by outgoing MP Michel De Maegd, Youssef Handichi (former Brussels PTB MP, now converted to liberalism and the vision of work championed by the MR) and Alexia Bertrand (Secretary of State for Budget, on the Open VLD quota). Valérie Glatigny is delighted with the diversity of this list. “We are ready to go, with a strong list that has strong appeal. We are choosing to attract people who share our values”.
The MR and Open-VLD appear together on this list. This is a novelty, justified by the many similarities between the two liberal parties’ programmes. The list reflects this partnership. “There is a balanced representation”, states the Brussels lead candidate.
Valérie Glatigny also responds to accusations of communitarianism, following the arrival of Youssef Handichi in 3rd place and Rachid Azaoum (former Les Engagés) in 5th place. Valérie Glatigny firmly denies this and recalls the MR’s universalist vision. “The MR has a programme that doesn’t exclude, but includes. Communitarianism means changing the programme to please voters. Here, these are candidates who are turning to us because they share our values”.
Regarding a possible coalition, Valérie Glatigny reiterated that, for the MR, no agreement is possible with extremist parties, whether on the right (such as the Vlaams Belang) or the left (the PTB). “I said that we need to form a coalition with people who share the same socio-economic programme as us. That is not the case with the PTB. Our programmes are opposed”, she concludes.