The opposition is being silenced: No debate on opening up Laeken Park

The Brussels Parliament’s Environment Committee met to set the agenda for the autumn. None of the opposition’s 11 legislative initiatives are to be discussed by the Brussels majority parties. A resolution by the N-VA on the opening up of Laeken Park has been banned from the agenda for six years as a result. N-VA group chair Cieltje Van Achter speaks of unprecedented hypocrisy and the majority parties’ undemocratic display of power.

The Brussels N-VA group previously submitted a resolution to open the Royal Park of Laeken to the general public in 2017. At the beginning of 2021, it finally seemed to be moving forward after all the Brussels majority parties (Ecolo, Groen, PS, One.Brussels, Défi and Open Vld) indicated in the press that they wanted to make the royal domain accessible to the public. However, nothing has happened concerning the issue since then. “When planning the parliamentary agenda, I always call for starting the discussion of our resolution on Laeken Park, but the majority parties refuse this every time. Even worse, today they refused to discuss any of the opposition’s proposals. This makes parliamentary debate impossible,” claims Cieltje Van Achter.

Unprecedented

“The majority’s hypocritical attitude is unprecedented,” Van Achter continues. “How on earth can you openly advocate opening up Laeken Park but then quash any initiative to do so? This is a low point in the functioning of the Brussels Parliament.”

Aside from the Laeken Park proposal, 10 other opposition proposals were also kept off the agenda. The majority parties had not submitted any legislative initiatives of their own.