“The Groen party has deceived us”

The energy agreement that the Vivaldi government concluded is nothing more than a Pyrrhic victory, Bart De Wever says. “The Groen party, and in particular Tinne Van der Straeten, has deceived us. They never took plan B seriously, so they now have to beg ENGIE, which they have already promised a bag full of subsidies for the construction of additional gas-fired power stations.”

The service life of the two most recent power stations will be extended by ten years, but that is far too little. “The life of nuclear power stations in the US is being extended by 60 years. The oldest Dutch nuclear power station (Borssele) can just keep running for another 80 years,” says Bart De Wever. “The nuclear power phase-out is not being abolished; it is just being postponed. And Prime Minister De Croo quite simply joins in with that dogmatic green story. It truly beggars belief.”

Hysterical liberals

Bart De Wever also refers to the criticism that the N-VA in the Swedish government would have helped facilitate the nuclear power phase-out. “We have always been against the nuclear power phase-out. But in the Michel government, we found no allies to reverse that decision. What’s more, the liberals became hysterical when we started talking about it. However, during the talks about a Vivaldi government in 2020, all those involved made no fuss about our plans to reverse the nuclear power phase-out. But then they chose Vivaldi and went along with the Groen party’s insane logic. And that was in exchange for the premiership.”

Energy bill measures: too little, too late

Bart De Wever also returned to the measures taken by the federal government to reduce the energy bill. “The government mainly supports the passives, those who don’t work. To put it in context: the PS party electorate in particular benefits from this. In Wallonia, people mainly use fuel oil, so there they get a check for EUR 200. Flanders, where gas is mainly used for heating, has to settle for a VAT reduction that will soon be completely cancelled out by the index. Once again, working Flemish people are the ones who pay the price.”