:format(jpg):watermark(cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/5IDEBLR7ERC5TMAPLOHS63MVNM.png,0,30,0,100)/cloudfront-eu-central-1.images.arcpublishing.com/ipmgroup/YN6D2OAKLJEUPFVCP62J42NNGQ.jpg "May 1 of the PTB: “Price freezing is the solution!”, Claims Raoul Hedebouw")
He recommends the abolition of the 60 cents of excise duty levied on gasoline and diesel in order to bring the price around 1.40 euro. He also castigated the government’s lack of response to the surge in certain prices. The cost of living occupied a large part of the speeches on the occasion of May Day celebrated this year by the PTB place Anneessens in Brussels.
“We live in one of the richest countries in the world and today, there are workers who prefer to sleep in their car to save fuel. Everyone comes to me to say to me: Raoul, we have already experienced difficult times but, there, we really can’t take it anymore. If nothing happens, we will dive, “explained the president, Raoul Hedebouw. “And what does the government do? It appoints a group of experts. Ministers who earn 11,000 euros a month live so much in their bubble that they need experts to know what is going on in people’s lives… Price freeze is the solution!”
The Communist Party was also delighted to see that more and more parties subscribed to the idea of a tax on large estates, in particular the CD&V which is represented in the federal government.
For a long time, the PTB has been campaigning for a “millionaires’ tax”, where other left-wing parties speak of a wealth tax. “The PTB is now pushing the whole political spectrum to the left, even Joachim Coens’ CD&V. Many things seem possible but beware, with our proposals, no copyright, only copyleft'” , launched the president on the occasion of Labor Day.
However, the PTB is waiting to see the implementation of the commitments made in the run-up to May 1st which, in its view, risk being quickly forgotten as of May 2nd. “May 1, with us, is all year round,” he said.
The 1996 law, known as the competitiveness of companies and which organizes the freezing of wages excluding indexation, was also the target of criticism from the Communists who showed their support for union demands and said they expected more “pseudo-left” parties only words.
The PTB fired its arrows in the direction of the other parties, whether liberal, socialist or ecologist. The Vlaams Belang, which also organizes an annual meeting on Labor Day, was particularly targeted. “May 1 is not the day of the Vlaams Belang which tries to profile itself as social and Flemish but which opposes any tax on heritage and wants to fuck up the unions”, accused Mr. Hedebouw.
Questioned on the sidelines of his speech, the president of the party did not hide that he had the ambition to take over part of the popular vote and distrust of the traditional parties that the far right has monopolized. in Flanders. “With the current economic crisis, there is an increase in the stakes for the PTB, and there is a major challenge for us, which is to seek out the voices of the working class who have gone there,” said he explained.
The PTB did not participate Friday in the meeting of “sherpas” of the French-speaking parties on the sanitary cordon with regard to the far-right parties after the debate which opposed the presidents of the MR and the VB on the VRT. Some of its representatives have already debated in Flanders with the Vlaams Belang.
“I expect a meeting of all parties, French-speaking and Dutch-speaking, on this issue. I am the president of a national party. In Flanders, we could either have a debate with the traditional parties and the Vlaams Belang, or a party with the traditional parties, the Vlaams Belang and the PTB. I clearly prefer option 2 which is the best for anti-fascism,” he explained.
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