11 september 2020
20:29
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The PVDA wants to address inequality in our country with mapped out cycling and walking routes from ‘working-class district to super rich’.
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Tour of the Geelse Vetpot, thick wallet route, The chic Chicane and Capital between Rupel and Kanaal. They are all names of cycling and walking routes which the communist PVDA has mapped out in Flemish Brabant, Antwerp, East Flanders and Limburg.
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Although the names of the tours are playful, the campaign must address a theme that is close to the party’s heart. The communists want to denounce the inequality that they believe has only been exacerbated by the corona crisis and are again arguing for a millionaire tax. Data from the think tank OECD shows that Belgium is in the top 10 least unequal countries in the industrialized world.
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The routes mapped out by local PVDA departments take spotters to companies, castles and estates throughout Flanders. “When you stand in front of the huge closed gates of long driveways, it is clear that our proposal for a corona tax on multi-millionaires is very feasible,” he said. “It is not difficult to see where the big money, the dormant capital, is.”
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The communist party hopes that the corona bill does not reach the working class. ‘The multi-millionaires and the traditional parties are looking at Jan with the cap again.’ That is why the PVDA advocates a tax on large assets to dampen the corona well. The party proposes a step-by-step system in which someone with assets above 1 million euros pays 1 percent tax. That percentage rises to 2 percent on everything above 2 million and 3 percent on assets above 3 million.
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‘To do that, you need a bank secrecy and an asset register. That is a matter of political will, because it is technically possible to introduce it, ‘says PVDA chairman Peter Mertens.
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Whether it will be possible to put the millionaire tax on the table in government negotiations is still the question. ‘But it is nice to combine the matter with a bike ride and a family event,’ says Mertens. ‘There are many bicycle tours that show the poverty in the cities. We thought: we would also put wealth and capabilities in the light. ‘
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