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Party leaders Egbert Lachaert, Joachim Coens and Georges-Louis Bouchez are hoping for a breakthrough this week in their attempt to launch an Åland coalition without the PS.
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Open VLD chairman Egbert Lachaert, CD&V leader Joachim Coens and MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez do not yet have a substantive note, but this is expected this week. Then it must become clear whether the ‘three kings’ get something moving.
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Sp.a chairman Conner Rousseau awaits the substantive proposal before he makes it clear whether he wants to jump or not. Rousseau suggests that pressure is put on him without actually speaking to him that games are being played. The sp.a president is in close contact with PS president Paul Magnette, while he has to release the French-speaking socialists to Åland coalition without enabling the Parti Socialiste. The plan is to expand the current government to include the N-VA, the sp.a and the cdH, bringing the government to 76 seats, or 77 if Jean-Marie Dedecker is included.
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Lachaert, Coens and Bouchez saw the PS chairman for the first time on Sunday, although the three want to make a government without the PS. If that doesn’t work, they’ll have to do business with Magnette again. Then the socialist proposal will come back to the table to expand the Wilmès government with the PS, the sp.a and the cdH. That classic tripartite, as a minority government, should receive tolerance support from the Greens.
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What has not yet happened is that people will discuss content with us. The PS and the N-VA never get together.
Egbert Lachaert
Chairman Open VLD
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Lachaert assumes that he has a chance of success. ‘What hasn’t happened yet is that people are going to talk to us about the content. The PS and the N-VA never get out of it. ” That has always been the thesis of the new chairman of Open VLD. And his plans don’t seem to have been thwarted by retiring chairman Gwendolyn Rutten. In ‘The appointment on Friday’ she got the dolls dancing by saying that the N-VA has made her ‘an offer’ for a Flemish government with the support of Vlaams Belang.
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Sermon
At the party office of the Flemish liberals, where Rutten had apologized, Lachaert preached on Monday that they must move forward together and that no confusing signals can be sent. He received broad support for this. The liberals also realize that a government is needed to stop a further advance of the Vlaams Belang.
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In an interview with De Standaard, Elio Di Rupo quoted the Parti Socialiste from Rutten’s statements to reiterate that a government with the N-VA is impossible. ‘We didn’t know it was going to go that far. If the N-VA wants to cooperate with Vlaams Belang, it is completely unthinkable for us to join a government with them ”, Di Rupo closed for the umpteenth time.
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The question is whether the PS will drive itself off if the sp.a proves willing to negotiate further on the basis of the note from the three kings. This will certainly include an upgrade of health care and the purchasing power of small benefits. That is no problem for Coens, if the PS joins the table for a large coalition. The danger is that this will end in yet another round between the N-VA and the PS, and that attempt will again fail. That would bring elections very close.
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