Bart De Wever: “We want to have a debate on confederalism in Wallonia, too”

N-VA Chairman Bart De Wever was extensively covered in the media last weekend after his statement in the Het Laatste Nieuws newspaper that the party is considering submitting lists for the federal elections in Wallonia as well. “It is time we also had a debate about confederalism in Wallonia, because many people are tired of the PS party’s policy there,” said De Wever, who is also demanding clarity from the CD&V and Open Vld parties: “Would they join a Vivaldi II coalition once again with an even smaller Flemish minority?”

“It is not our ambition to gain a lot of seats, but to have a debate on our confederal plans in the south of the country as well. That happens far too little, although I get a lot of reactions in my mailbox, and my book about woke has also sold well in Wallonia. Many people are fed up with the PS party and are well aware that they receive a lot of money from Flanders, and yet they are not making any progress. In Wallonia, poverty and unemployment are financed. People increasingly understand the link: if we were to govern ourselves and be responsible for our own accounts, the PS party’s system would collapse because it only survives with Flemish money.”

On federal negotiations

“If you want to achieve Confederalism If we want to make structural changes, then we have to change the structures. Confederalism is the structural change that this country needs. The basic principle of confederalism is that Flanders and Wallonia are the owners of all powers. They exercise these themselves, but can also make decisions together and manage certain powers together at the confederal level, in both of their interests. This completely reverses the logic. Instead of transferring federal powers to Flanders and Wallonia, these powers can be transferred to the confederal level. Forced cooperation is replaced by voluntary cooperation. Must becomes will. Dismantling from above becomes building up from below. Confederalism is therefore deciding together on what we want to do together. confederalism without bizarre situations, then you must come to an agreement with Wallonia’s left wing. It is my sincere conviction that that is where we need to go. If people think that I am simply going to join a federal government just to shore things up, that I am going to sacrifice prosperity in Flanders for that, then they are mistaken. I will only enter into federal negotiations if confederalism is on the table. I realise that these negotiations will take a long time. We can bridge that with a small technocratic emergency cabinet that focuses mainly on restructuring the budget.”

To hell with the Flemish voter

According to Bart De Wever, the big question that thus arises is not about possible collaboration with the Vlaams Belang party - “The Walloons don’t even want to sit in the same room with them, let alone negotiate with them, so that protest vote will only lead to a Vivaldi II coalition” - but above all, what the CD&V and Open Vld parties will do. “Sammy Mahdi and Tom Ongena must provide clarity: will they join a Vivaldi II coalition once again with an even smaller Flemish minority, as the green parties have already indicated? Will they once again hold hands with a massive French-speaking left-wing government? Will they really continue to govern with barely a third of the Flemish votes? Will they once again push the two largest Flemish parties aside and say to the Flemish voter: ‘To hell with you’? If people want clarity from me, then I demand clarity about that, too.”