Politics takes a bad turn again: coldest week in Brussels
The federal government is not in a position to offer all asylum seekers a dignified shelter in harsh and frightening winter times. Prime Minister De Croo stumbled egg so after in the management of N-VA via WhatsApp messages to and from the cabinet of the minister of state Eva De Bleeker brutally discriminating against him. After two years of investigation, the special parliamentary committee on the Colonial Past of the federal parliament has not come up with controlled, binding apologies for the exploitative Belgian colonialism in Africa (Congo, Rwanda and Burundi). The disbanded commission ends in political squabbles between liberals and ‘la gauche’ (dixit Georges-Louis Bouchez, opposition leader within the Vivald coalition). In the Flemish government, Prime Minister Jan Jambon has faded away and the vranke Zuhal Demir is the new Flemish leader, who with her words is taking over almost all powers and thus embarrassing her Flemish and federal colleagues. Anyway.
Meanwhile, Walloon parliament president and Liège PS leader Jean-Claude Marcourt and the entire parliament bureau resigned. Under pressure from its chairman and public opinion. Many people are literally and figuratively groaning under the energy crisis, the changing socio-economic circumstances, the war in Ukraine and the climate disaster, the (opportunity) poverty, … and there are still unworldly politicians who offer 20,000 euros for a trip and accommodation for a few days in Dubai quite ok.
The Parti Socialiste cannot shake the shadow of scandal. And then I have not yet written about Qatargate in the European Parliament. Hundreds of thousands of euros in bribes are found in luxury suitcases, a hotel and luxury apartments of socialist and social democratic (former) members of the European Parliament (Pier Antonio Panzeri, Eva Kaili,…). The scandal also discredits the Belgian Parti Socialiste (Marc Tarabella). My left beating heart is bleeding. How is it possible that after Agusta, Dassault, Samusocial, Nethys,… and now Qatargate, socialist politicians continue to enrich themselves and their families? It is greed, as Ken Loach once said, that destroys man and humanity. Neither Elio Di Rupo nor Paul Magnette, strong, honest and charismatic party chairmen, nevertheless, get the stinking scandalitis and the disgusting upstart behavior of a few politicians who have not been nipped in the bud.
And then the left-wing party leaders are stunned that their PS votes have been lost to the PTB/PVDA? I hold my heart (and head) for election year 2024. If politics in Europe, Belgium, Brussels, Flanders and Wallonia cannot make a better turn, a power name of extreme right-wing populism and racism in Flanders will be unstoppable and perhaps not anymore to exclude. So sorry for the slogan, but please: more ethics in politics.
Wouter Hessels teaches about film, media and society at RITCS and INSAS in Brussels