Jambon on a year and a half of the De Wever government: "Reforms that safeguard our prosperity"

Eighteen months into the De Wever government, Deputy Prime Minister Jan Jambon looks back on the administration’s record in Het rapport van de Wetstraat, the political podcast of HLN. Despite a challenging budgetary climate, Jambon says he is satisfied with a series of fundamental reforms that had remained untouched for decades. “It has been a year and a half of hard work and long hours for the De Wever government,” he says.

An impressive track record of reforms

According to Jan Jambon, the government has brought about a fundamental shift. While previous administrations delayed difficult decisions for years, this coalition has acted swiftly.

“When you look at the reforms we have not only launched but also successfully steered through Parliament, that is quite an impressive achievement,” he says.

The government has focused on securing the long-term sustainability of Belgium’s Social security Social security is currently managed at the Federal level in Belgium. The most important pillars of Belgian social security are: sickness and invalidity insurance (NIDHI), pensions, unemployment insurance and child allowances. In addition, occupational illness, occupational accidents and annual holidays are dealt with at this level. Some Flemish parties have been campaigning for years for (large parts of) social security to be transferred to the Regions and Communities. social security system, with pension reform as its flagship policy. According to the Deputy Prime Minister, this was essential to address the ticking time bomb of an ageing population.

“The Study Committee on Ageing has published a report showing that we are delivering on our promises: we are cutting the projected increase in pension costs by half.”

Jambon believes no further changes to the pension system will be needed during this parliamentary term.

“I realise this reform was already difficult for many parties to accept. I remain open to proposals, but from what I hear our coalition partners saying, the pension reform is now considered complete.”

Recent IMF The International Monetary Fund (IMF), established in 1945, focuses on monetary issues. The global organisation is governed by and accountable to the 188 member countries. In addition to financial stability, monetary cooperation and international trade, the IMF promotes and supports employment, sustainable economic growth and combating poverty. In this regard, it provides loans, technical assistance, specialised training courses and advice to governments. It also monitors financial trends. IMF analyses also confirm that the government is on the right track. Without the reforms currently being implemented, Belgium’s economic outlook would have been 2 to 3% of GDP The gross domestic product (GDP) is the total monetary value of all goods and services produced within a country, both by companies and the government. This term is usually used as a benchmark for a country’s prosperity. This is why the N-VA closely follows the evolution of the Belgian GDP. GDP worse.

Making work pay: tax reform

Another key priority for N-VA is widening the gap between working and not working. Jambon therefore strongly defends the government's tax reform, which aims to reduce the tax burden on labour.

Despite the pressure on public finances, he considers this measure indispensable.

“It would be contradictory to say we want to make work pay more and then start chipping away at that objective during the next budget negotiations. I simply don't see that happening.”

The Deputy Prime Minister also points out that the reform has already been enshrined in law.

“And changing a law requires a parliamentary majority,” he reminds his coalition partners.

Closing the €10 billion gap

Jambon acknowledges that finding additional savings will be politically challenging.

“I think every party will come to the negotiating table with its own package of proposals. Everyone will also have to move beyond some of their red lines, because this will be an extremely difficult exercise. The challenge is to strike a balance that allows all five coalition parties to leave the table with their heads held high. Above all, we need to be able to say that we have closed the €10 billion gap.”

According to Jambon, there are still interesting options when it comes to VAT.

“But that concerns revenue. In my view, our real problem lies on the spending side, not the revenue side,” he says.

“Our first responsibility is therefore to identify where unnecessary spending can still be cut and which additional reforms can be implemented.”

He stresses that prosperity is created by businesses and workers, not by government.

“Governments can only spend money that has first been generated by the private sector.”

For Jambon, economic growth remains the fastest route to healthier public finances, making support for entrepreneurship essential.

“You can adopt policies that stifle economic growth, or you can adopt policies that stimulate it. We are firmly committed to the latter.”

Despite tensions within the coalition, he remains confident.

“I cannot imagine any of the five parties wanting to take responsibility for bringing down the government in times like these. We need to keep working until we have found those €10 billion.”

Flexi-jobs: an asset

Some criticism has recently been voiced that flexi-jobs undermine the social security system, but Jambon defends the scheme with hard figures.

“The whole point of a flexi-job is that it is done on top of a regular job or a pension. It benefits both employees and employers. Businesses are the source of income for every level of government.”

The figures, he says, speak for themselves.

“Today, around 250,000 people have a flexi-job, working an average of 100 hours a year. Eighty-three per cent of them also have a full-time job. One criticism is that some people may reduce their regular working hours to four-fifths and then top up their income with a flexi-job. But that only happens in 17% of cases. It is certainly worth examining whether this amounts to cannibalising regular employment. I don't have the answer at this stage, but it is a perfectly legitimate question to investigate.”

Jambon also cautions his coalition partners against constantly revisiting decisions.

“Once you have taken a decision, you should not question it again a week later. Every system has its strengths and weaknesses. Good governance is about identifying where improvements can be made,” he concludes.