A resumption of negotiations?
This Monday, the PS broke the silence that had settled since then. He urged Brussels trainer David Leisterh (MR) to resume discussions “without delay” for the development of a 2026 budget for the Capital Region. By asserting that hehad agreed to 85 % of its content and shares its alternatives for the 15 % remaining“.
It is an understatement to say that this invitation did not go down well with the president of the MR, Georges-Louis Bouchez. “This is truly the Champions League of nerve. An immensity of nerve“, he thunders.
The Montois explains why. “We had set a budgetary frameworkhe explains. We must stop saying that no one can afford anything in Brussels. And we proposed measures to achieve the objective. It was agreed that if we did not agree with a measure, we would propose another to compensate. For example, if you do not agree to freeze the allocation to municipalities, you must propose to increase the price of garbage bags. A trash bag costs 17 cents in Brussels while it costs 1 euro in Mons and even more in certain Flemish municipalities. This is common sense. But even this, the PS does not want it. We must stop saying that people cannot pay anything in Brussels.“
What made Georges-Louis Bouchez come off his hinges was that the PS, with Vooruit, submitted its budgetary table but, he asserts, without concrete structural measures to reduce the deficit. “For example, he talks about a saving of 170 million in operating costs. But he doesn’t say how to get there“, he explains.
Brussels training: the PS calls for an urgent resumption of budgetary negotiations
A non-recurring provision
Even the budgetary objective is not unanimous. “They say that they agree with the objective of one billion savings by 2029. But they remove from this billion the 360 million of a provision which had been decided in 2024. However, this was a provision which was only to be used once, in 2025. This provision is not recurring. The PS nevertheless includes it in the effort. For the PS, it is therefore not 1 billion that we need to find, but 640 million. How can you pretend that we would agree at 85 % on the effort to be made if we do not even agree on the large masses.“
The conclusion of the president of the MR is that the Brussels PS does not want a real break. “We are dealing with a political class that has never made any real budgetary efforts. The bottom line of my thoughts is that the PS considers that the MR’s first place in Brussels is a historical anomaly and it wants to find the house intact when it takes back the keys. But the MR will not play the janitor.“
And now ? Georges-Louis Bouchez does not seem impressed by the ultimatum. He is waiting for the concrete measures that the PS will propose. “In Januaryhe predicts, Brussels will no longer be able to open credit lines. Without reform, we are heading towards disaster.”
Registration fees, subsidies, Kanal museum, or STIB prices: here is the “final” budget note from the MR, rejected by Ahmed Laaouej
