Can the Di Rupo Government not hear the alarm bells?

Next week, the Chamber and the Senate begin the parliamentary year. For 10 weeks now, the majority parties have been blocking all activity, much to the annoyance of the N-VA. Di Rupo is scarcely in charge any more. This year, the Prime Minister himself is giving no “State of the Union” speech in Parliament. Can he not hear the alarm bells ringing? On Tuesday, for example, De Standaard ran the headline that more companies than ever went bankrupt this September. This year almost 8,000 enterprises closed their books, with 15,956 jobs being lost in the process (figures from Graydon). Het Laatste Nieuws today reports that as much as 311.7 million euros in 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 has been overspent since this summer. And that the Federal Government this year has a budget deficit of close to 1 billion euros. What is Di Rupo waiting for? What a contrast with the policy of the Flemish Government; particularly with regard to the N-VA’s participation and what with the 2013 budget already having been prepared, and balanced out to boot, and without raising taxes or introducing tight austerity measures.