Yesterday, Minister of Finance Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) announced that he would nevertheless introduce a temporary VAT reduction for energy. He receives support for this from his own party, but also from Vooruit, PVDA and Vlaams Belang. Those three parties seem to be engaged in a competition to claim the paternity of such a VAT reduction. “Apparently a number of parties have seen the light today”, MP Peter Mertens (PVDA) believes to be able to determine.
But it is mainly looking forward to what the greens and liberals think about this. Both Christien Leysen (Open VLD) and Florence Reuter (MR) insist on the affordability of new measures. And Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open VLD) seems to be on the same page. “Firstly, it must be about temporary measures, secondly about targeted measures,” said the Prime Minister. “A third element is sustainability for public finances.”
Between the lines: the Prime Minister does not seem to be in favor of a general measure such as a VAT reduction for everyone, as proposed by Van Peteghem yesterday.
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