The Brussels policy statement is “one big disillusionment” for Cieltje Van Achter

The policy statement Brussels Minister-President Rudi Vervoort made in the Brussels Parliament is “one big disillusionment” for N-VA group chair Cieltje Van Achter. “As is always the case in Brussels, this latest policy statement is also presented without figures. How are revenues and expenses evolving? Exactly how big is the deficit? These are all things we have to find out in the press and about which conflicting information is circulating. How can you discuss policy if you are not given any insight into its costs?”

“What has actually been achieved during this administrative period? The Open Vld party had one trophy in the coalition agreement: budgetary equilibrium. And then nothing was done for four years. And what do we see now? We are once again going more than a billion euros into the red!”

An empty box

“Pascal Smet (Vooruit party) ran an entire campaign in 2019 on ‘One Brussels’, a unified city region. Four years later, we have not made any progress. The States General on the ‘Toekomsten van Brussel’ (‘Futures of Brussels’) turns out to be an empty box. Centralisation seems further away than ever before.”

Green mobility fiasco

Cieltje is also critical of the Groen party: “What about the new mobility policy that the Groen party promised us? Billions of euros have flowed towards that. But what has been achieved with it? Metro 3 is a fiasco and the millions that flowed into studies will soon be worth nothing because the money has run out. In the meantime, the mobility debate has become extremely polarised, and in many neighbourhoods, the support for implementing any new policy whatsoever has completely disappeared. That is the legacy of Vervoort III,” she concludes.