During the Flemish formation discussions last summer, the N-VA made far-reaching proposals to Open VLD and CD&V to include the Vlaams Belang. When Gwendolyn Rutten suddenly made that offer more concrete The Friday Appointment, every effort was made not to listen to that statement: “That was generally known.” It is a perfidious argument, more: a lie.
It is likely that Gwendolyn Rutten still has an account open with the man who succeeded her as chairman of Open VLD, Egbert Lachaert. And she is wise enough to know that her statement does not make it easy for Lachaert to form a government – perhaps for that reason she spoke those words. But that doesn’t make what she said in The Friday Appointment any less interesting: ‘We were full of discussions a year ago in which N-VA told us the story exactly to us but also to CD&V and said of’ please join the government N -VA, Vlaams Belang and you. We will reward you generously, but we want to bring the Vlaams Belang on board. It really didn’t matter much. The proposal has been on the table and has been really politically tested. Only my answer has always been crystal clear. No, not with us. “
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It is likely that Gwendolyn Rutten still has an account open with the man who succeeded her as chairman of Open VLD, Egbert Lachaert. And she is wise enough to know that her statement does not make it easy for Lachaert to form a government – perhaps for that reason she spoke those words. But that doesn’t make what she said in The Friday Appointment any less interesting: ‘We were full of discussions a year ago in which N-VA told us the story exactly to us but also to CD&V and said of’ please join the government N -VA, Vlaams Belang and you. We will reward you generously, but we want to bring the Vlaams Belang on board. It really didn’t matter much. The proposal has been on the table and has been really politically tested. Only my answer has always been crystal clear. No, not with us. ”The first reaction to this was curious. Ghent political scientist Carl Devos was perhaps the first to make it clear that Rutten is playing a game by leaking ‘old news’. That became, in variants, ‘what was commonly known’. That is a perfidious argument in the Wetstraat, because who will confess something not to know what the rest apparently know? At the same time, social media exploded, there were a lot of people who apparently had not heard what Rutten said on Friday evening. Had they not read the newspapers well enough, followed the news sites insufficiently, had they forgotten to watch Terzake, De Zevende Dag and De Afspraak, whether or not on Friday, in one of the many tweets on which he defended his criticism on Twitter, Devos opened the door slightly: “The information is not really new, except for some details, of which it is still unclear whether they are correct. Relevant for sure. But especially ‘useful’. It is no coincidence that it is now shared. ‘The information that is’ not really new’, of course, refers to the weeks-long conversations between N-VA and Vlaams Belang. Reams of paper have indeed been written about those negotiations. The details differ, the essence was that Vlaams Belang and N-VA both had their own reasons for presenting themselves as ‘major Flemish victors’ to the voter, that the N-VA wanted everyone to see that the voter’s signal was taken seriously. Vlaams Belang wanted everyone to see that Tom Van Grieken had reformed the party into a serious candidate policy party, but a government with N-VA and Vlaams Belang was missing a few seats. One can count on these two parties: an entirely Flemish nationalist Flemish government was not part of the first conversation. And Open VLD and CD&V have always said that they would never do business with the VB – no other note has ever been heard from the party headquarters from Wetstraat or Melssensstraat. That does not alter the fact that the N-VA – or a number of leading figures – did not like to govern with the VB. Even when he was prime minister, during the famous ‘opening lecture’ political science in Ghent (indeed, the brainchild of Carl Devos), Jan Jambon made it clear that a government with VB would have been better – punishment, because in fact this statement implied that the Jambon government (N-VA, CD&V, Open VLD) was actually only the second choice of Jan Jambon himself, which suddenly makes Gwendolyn Rutten clearer than ever – and that N-VA attempted to present one of the to glue two other center-right government parties: ‘We are going to reward you generously’. And then the sentences: It really did not matter much. It has been seriously politically tested. ” And she says that “her” answer “was always crystal clear:” Not with us. Write down ‘her’. Not from her party, or from others. But the word ‘lavish’ seems to imply that people mainly threw mandates and the like – until now nothing was known about it – or it is certainly not yet written, not described, not commented on. A possible track was suddenly launched by Koen T on Sunday. ‘Sijen – once a VU student, who subsequently ended up in socialist environments, is still mayor of Boechout:’ Wasn’t it even about 4 ministers for Open VLD, 5 for the N-VA with the support of Vlaams Belang? ‘ If – if – this is indeed the concrete proposal that it was about – and that it is mentioned in the media for the first time, so that is really ‘new’. Or have we not all paid enough attention? At the above mentioned college of Carl Devos, Jan Jambon referred in his explanation of how to involve the Vlaams Belang, to the Netherlands’ where Geert Wilders’ PVV also at one point granted the government of Mark Rutte tolerant support in parliament. ‘ Jambon and T’Sijen put together, the N-VA’s first preference was therefore a Flemish minority cabinet – without Open VLD or CD&V in the government, with the support of the VB in the Flemish Parliament. So rather a less stable government than a crippled formula that could only exist by the grace of the VB. What are the reasons for the N-VA summit to go so far – because the VB would of course ask its price in terms of content. So the N-VA would have to issue many mandates to the small partner, and lean heavily towards VB politically and substantively? Why? To hope that out of some kind of scorched earth policy, your own voters would vote N-VA? Or as an unpublished exercise, as a springboard for the truly Flemish nationalist coalition? If the talks were serious, as Rutten claims, it is interesting to know who knew about the proposals within Open VLD and CD&V, and what their positions were goods. It is noticeable that CD&V keeps silent. It can be assumed that Wouter Beke knew about it, as party chairman, as well as his right-hand man, de facto chief of cabinet and negotiator, Benjamin Dalle. Plus of course the Flemish number one, Hilde Crevits. The three CD & V’ers in the Jambon government became the three ministers, and that after a curious ‘decision procedure’ that almost led to an internal uprising among the Flemish CD & V’ers. Have Beke, Crevits and Dalle paid each other (and the N-VA) some kind of political hush money? What was their position then? Who have they confided in their own party? If they have not discussed this proposal with anyone or only a very limited circle, why? What was there to hide? Or did they actually want to raise their own price against the N-VA for the actual formation of government (which was yet to come), and is there actually someone who still maintains that everything is known? Perhaps it is because so many new, annoying questions are being asked all of a sudden that Bart De Wever would rather ‘take off his grass’ than answer, that Lorin Parys turns up with the villainous suggestion that Rutten is apparently ready for a holiday, and that the new liberal banging dismiss a vital political matter as a personal argument? The question is whether for how long they will be able to continue to ignore the effect of this new light that Gwendolyn Rutten shone on a number of pending matters.
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