Alain Maron tries to rush the Brussels pandemic law through Parliament; the N-VA obtains a postponement

Brussels MP Gilles Verstraeten had sharp criticism for Health Minister Alain Maron’s plan to have a Brussels pandemic law approved quickly this week. According to Maron, this must be done as soon as possible, because there is no legal basis for the current coronavirus measures in Brussels. Gilles Verstraeten is outraged at the way the Minister is trying to push this important ordinance through Parliament: “This is not about some minor technical adjustments as we were promised, but about an authorisation to restrict the fundamental rights of the people of Brussels without any form of parliamentary control.” The discussion of the ordinance has been postponed for a week, partly at the request of the N-VA.

“Maron’s explanation was that due to the favourable evolution of the coronavirus pandemic and the fading out of the federal phase of crisis management, a ‘number of minor technical adjustments to the legislation’ were necessary,” says Gilles Verstraeten. “We could live with that, but we said clearly that it must not be an important legal text, since Maron had already tricked parliament with his ordinance on the electricity market: quickly rushing an extremely important 400-page text through parliament. So we absolutely did not want that.”

Maron lied

Gilles Verstraeten says it appeared today that Maron had simply lied to Parliament because it concerns a Brussels version of the federal pandemic law. According to Gilles Verstraeten, it is unacceptable that the Brussels government wanted to have this approved quickly in one week. “You just don’t do this between lunch and dinner on two days. It’s not possible!”

Government can act on its own

“The ordinance would give the Brussels Government a general authorisation to introduce curfews, impose distancing rules, restrict access to certain facilities and so on, at its own discretion and without any parliamentary control. The fundamental rights of the people of Brussels are here once again being blatantly violated. And Parliament is not even allowed to comment on it,” said an outraged Gilles Verstraeten.

Legal procedure not followed

Gilles Verstraeten also points out that the correct legal procedure was not followed: “There is no official parliamentary version of the document yet, and the mandatory advice of the Council of State is only available in Dutch.” Gilles Verstraeten also does not understand why the government insists on the urgency to approve this text quickly: “There is no urgency whatsoever. Why is it necessary to vote on an ordinance quickly now, when stricter measures than federal ones were taken without such a basis in the past?”

Postponed

After consultation between the majority and the opposition, it was decided to postpone the handling of the ordinance by one week. Gilles Verstraeten is satisfied that the majority realises that this way of working is unacceptable: “We now have time to study the ordinance thoroughly and submit amendments, which we will certainly do.”