Brussels government formation: Van den Brandt calls on PS to return to the table
Elke Van den Brandt of green party Groen has launched a new appeal to the French-speaking socialists of PS to return to the table for the formation of a Brussels government.
Speaking to TV channel VTM, Dutch-speaking formateur Elke Van den Brandt said the situation was becoming difficult for many organisations in the capital and that trying to form a government was a case of dealing with that situation in a socially responsible way.
The Brussels government negotiations are at a standstill. After six months, there was finally a breakthrough on the Dutch-speaking side when Groen, Vooruit, Open VLD and N-VA agreed to negotiate together. A result, the PS dropped out on the French-speaking side, because they don’t want to negotiate with the conservative N-VA.
Van den Brandt has called on the PS to “take its responsibility” to at least start talks with N-VA. According to her, N-VA has tried but the PS refused. “But the PS did negotiate with N-VA at the federal level in 2020,” Van den Brandt said.
She also cited the budgetary situation. As at the federal level, Brussels will be governed by “provisional twelfths” from January. This means that each month the government cannot spend more than the previous year's budget divided by 12. According to Van den Brandt, this creates a complicated situation concerning funding and paying staff for a lot of social organisations, such as homeless shelters.
Elke Van den Brandt of green party Groen © BELGA PHOTO NICOLAS MAETERLINCK
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