The PS election manifesto is just under 1,200 pages long. The full version will only be online on Monday, but the part that was presented on Sunday at the election conference in Ixelles is not surprising in terms of content. The French-speaking socialists emphasize more wages for those who work. “The fight for better wages is becoming the priority of priorities for the socialists,” said PS chairman Paul Magnette before a packed room in the Flagey building.
“Because we know how difficult it is to make ends meet with 1,800 or 2,000 euros. When your rent, all charges, taxes, insurance, the car and the expenses for the children have been paid, there is only a few euros left per day. Then every day remains a struggle. That’s not normal when you work every day. Certainly not when some ‘patrons’ earn millions and multinationals pay out high dividends. It is the workers who create value, they must be able to live a dignified life.”
The PS generously attributes the fact that the Vivaldi government raised minimum pensions and then increased benefits and lowest wages. Now the party wants to increase low wages again, and also those of the lower middle class. “Thanks to all the measures we took during the corona crisis, companies were able to stay afloat and can now once again demonstrate good results. This means that there is also money for the employees,” says Magnette. “By increasing wages in this way, more income also flows to the treasury and social security. So that is a good thing for the budget. Especially if we combine that with a wealth tax for the richest 1 percent.”
The election program also states that people must be given the opportunity to switch to a four-day week. According to Magnette, this will distribute existing jobs better, something that experts do not necessarily agree with. Vivaldi’s labor deal already created the option to work all the hours of a full-time job in four days. Magnette realizes that the next step, a real four-day week with 32 working hours, will not happen until tomorrow. “But we do want to take steps in that direction.”
“Merchants of Hate”
The congress took place in the same place where Magnette’s predecessor Elio Di Rupo (PS) held his major electoral congress in 2014. “Nationalism and ultra-liberalism have one obstacle in common. And that is us, the socialists,” he said ten years ago. Echoes of this could be heard in Magnette’s speech: “The traffickers in hatred are everywhere. They feed on the suffering in the world, they divide in order to rule, they fan the smoldering fire of contempt and hatred. They are in the right-wing parties. They are in the nationalist movements. They are in reactionary circles and extreme right-wing parties. They colonize social and new media. But! They haven’t won yet. And they won’t win, because we’re going to win!”
Koen Geens critic on the list
On the margins of the congress, the PS member also warned that there will be no new state reform after the elections, regardless of who he will sit with at the negotiating table. “If the extremes of Vlaams Belang and PTB/PVDA achieve strong results, there are simply too few seats. State reform will never be possible after these elections.”
The biggest surprise at the PS conference was wrapped in a bow. Luc Hennart, the former president of the French-speaking court in Brussels, is on the list in June. He takes fourth place on the European list, which is drawn by Walloon Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo. The perfectly bilingual Hennart did not mince his words and tackled Minister of Justice Koen Geens (CD&V) several times during the Michel government. Hennart also denounced the division of the judicial district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde – a consequence of the Community Butterfly Agreement under Prime Minister Di Rupo – and once guided crime journalists into what he called “Ali Baba’s cave”, the cellars of the Palace of Justice, where millions of pieces of evidence from court files are stored, including a severed hand and a Picasso.
