Will the Vivaldi government come up with a thorough tax reform? Finance Minister Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) is working on that reform, but Vooruit wants things to go a bit faster. For Vooruit, the plans must be discussed urgently. “With Vooruit, we are calling for those plans to be presented as soon as possible,” said chairman Conner Rousseau. “We have to be honest and admit that we may not be able to do everything. But we have to take the first step,” Rousseau said at VTM News. The central goal for the socialists is that working people have more net left at the end of the month.
The track to increase the VAT on basic products from 6 to 9 percent, on the other hand, collides with a clear ‘njet’. “We really don’t go along with that. If the minister puts that plan on the table, we will call it a halt. That really can’t be. Let’s be honest, the shopping cart has already become considerably more expensive,” says Rousseau. “Why should we raise VAT then? To cost the people again? Is that what the CD&V wants to say to people?”
To help finance the costs of the tax reform, Vooruit suggests a larger contribution from the largest wealth, in particular through an increase in the securities tax. “There is now a securities tax of 0.15 percent for people who have more than 1 million euros in their account. There is still margin. For us, that may, or should be said, be a little more. We can ask those who have the greatest wealth to pay a little more to show solidarity with the working people,” said Rousseau.
Asylum crisis
Another challenge for the federal government is the asylum crisis. There, the Vooruit chairman calls on people to stop pointing fingers at each other. “The government must take matters into its own hands and get the situation under control,” said Rousseau.
According to him, the government should continue to focus on creating extra reception places – even though, according to Rousseau, many more places have already been created – and on an accelerated deportation and return of people who are not entitled to asylum. Receiving asylum seekers in hotels must be possible “in exceptional circumstances”. “But then the people who ask to open hotels must also cooperate in an accelerated return of those who are not entitled to asylum,” concludes the Vooruit leader.
