‘I also have my concerns’, CD&V figurehead Hilde Crevits responded this morning Radio 1 to the many internal protests against Vivaldi. She also makes it clear that she is not eager for the premiership. In the meantime, local opposition continues to bubble up.
–
Vivaldi is back on track, but the turbulent past days strengthened the opponents at CD&V in their opinion that their party has nothing to do in the unpublished coalition. Party figurehead Hilde Crevits also responded this morning Radio 1 still very careful on the Vivaldi project. “I understand the concerns very well,” she says. ‘It is a government without a Flemish majority, so everything depends on the content and respect for our positions. I also have my concerns, but when you jump you have to jump out of passion. I now hope in the strength and wisdom of my chairman. If this is not a good project, it will never make it through our members ‘congress.’
Prime Minister Hilde Crevits?
Her chairman Joachim Coens also explicitly put Crevits forward as candidate prime minister during the government negotiations. ‘That has indeed been discussed internally. I am a party woman and I have not forbidden him to mention my name. But I am working on the future of Flanders and I really want to continue that. ‘ Crevits makes it so clear that she is not eager for the premiership.
She does stress, however, that there is “an objective reason” as to why the discussion about premiership is so difficult. ‘CD&V is the largest Flemish party within a government without a Flemish majority. It is logical that we hit the table. ‘
Local opposition
In the meantime, the opposition continues to bubble within CD&V. In the Newspaper of West Flanders let Flemish Member of Parliament and CD&V Mayor Bart Dochy understand today that he ‘doesn’t like the whole Vivaldi story’. Dochy was one of the ‘twelve apostles’ who made the evaluation of CD&V after the election defeat and is an authoritative voice within the West Flemish CD&V department. The words must therefore hit hard for the West Flemish chairman Coens.
‘I have already mentioned this several times internally,’ says Dochy. ‘Pieter De Crem made this public last week. And he is absolutely right. Indeed, there are many mayors who are critical of this coalition. In fact, the vast majority. And why? Because we have a good sense of the soil flow in Flanders. That ground current is center-right. Vivaldi will be a left story. There is nothing we can do in that coalition. We are not even mathematically necessary. I don’t have any faith in that story. The fact that the national leadership is going along with it anyway, is worrying many local departments. ‘
By the way, Dochy also emphasizes that it would be ‘unwise’ to sacrifice Crevits ‘for the federal level’. ‘That would be bad for the Flemish government, for CD&V and for Hilde herself. We have already made that mistake twice, with Yves Leterme and with Kris Peeters. We can’t do that a third time. ‘
– .
