Bart de Wever had fun with the opposition deputies, in the Chamber Commission, on July 9. There is still extended the register of his good jokes.
His time is precious, On this parliamentary day on Wednesday, July 9. Because there is a plenary session which is organized at the same timeon the voting of the-program law, and especially because it also has a thousand agreements to complete with his ministers before July 21Bart De Wever.
But he is there, he looks like he has when he is there, in committee, the air of the one who will spend much of the day. And he doesn’t always have the face of the one who has fun, even if he never seems to lose patience. In the morning, he had an exchange of views, for an hour and a half, with the deputies of the “federal opinion committee for European issues”, during which it was a question of debriefing the last European Council. He mainly talked about defense there, and he explained there several times how, according to him, Belgium could not do other than buying Additional F35because there is no European fifth generation European fighter plane, that Europeans should have thought about it all together 20 years ago, because if you want one of the sixth, you have to get started now, there are already two projects but they are competitors, it is criminal, the two must unite. And in the afternoon, between 2:30 p.m. and 4:30 p.m., he was supposed to answer 21 parliamentary questions, it was too much and All could not be installedeven if he has largely overwhelmed on the scheduled time “for deputies who are still present”. It was 4:50 p.m. when he raised the camp, there were only four Belang deputies, two of his own party, and Philippe Courard (PS).
The others, it must be said, were required at the crucial plenary simultaneous. The last time was the 1is April and Bart de Wever had made jokes, he had mocked himself a bit and breathed powerful boredom. This time, the Prime Minister had his orange tie, perhaps orangistwe will not know, because the twenty-first question, of François de Smet, on “the declarations of the Prime Minister concerning the split of the Netherlands” could not be asked. When François de Smet has passed, between two plenary interventions, it was not yet the time, and he was no longer there when the president of the committee asked if there were still deputies who had a question.
“If we buy short -term fighter planes it will be F35. We hope that Europe will be able to develop a sixth generation model within ten years. ”
And he didn’t seem to get angry to repeat the same thing several times, sometimes to the same parliamentarians but not always. “”I try to be optimistic, it’s not my nature“, He will say, evoking the trade policy of Donald Trump, and it was valid throughout this parliamentary day.
To start, Raoul Hedebouw (PTB), in Dutch, questions the increase in military spending, NATO is already twelve times more than Russia, and we in Belgium, where are we going to find the money? And these F35, then? Christophe Lacroix (PS) has ten minutes but will not take them all, to ask for the same thing. Both want clarifications. Bart de Wever has ten minutes, and he responds by making fun of those who are not there.
In Raoul Hedebouw, in Dutch, the Prime Minister replied that the difference with Russia is not a matter of money but capacities and production apparatus. He then switches to the French to emphasize that, whether we like it or not, we will have to spend much more in Europe, and evokes, always in the language of Christophe Lacroix, his two previous presidents. “Mr. Lacroix, you asked the right question: how to finance them?” We were forced to achieve the 2% this year, these are the 2% promised in 2014 by Elio di Rupo at the top of NATO In Wales, ”he begins, before settling his accounts with Paul Magnette, who proposed to grasp the frozen Russian assets in Belgium. “Your party president accused me of not wanting to take the Russian assets, I think it would have been madnessI’m glad you are more prudent. “
Finally Come on point F35, it was two good hours that Bart de Wever had no longer mentioned it. “Some say that they never buy in America again, it is unrealistic and it is not desirable. If we buy short -term fighter planes, These will be F35for later, we hope that Europe will be able to develop a model ofsixth generation fighter plane in ten years. If we wanted to buy a European plane, we should have started to develop it 20 years ago. ”
The ten minutes are sold but he continues for good good minutes, and Raoul Hedebouw answers in two minutes and in Dutch that we have three times more tanks than Russia, Bart de Wever interrupts him very happy with him, “But that’s if you are counting on the Americans then he e he». To which Raoul Hedebouw retorts “Ah no no no I just speak of European NATO countries”. Christophe Lacroix then speaks to explain that Bart de Wever is a historian, “I am also, you are probably much more talented than me, but at the University of Liège I learned two main principles of historical criticism, One witness, a witness (ndlr: témoin unique, témoin nul)et Witnesses are not numbered but weighed (Editor’s note: witnesses are not counted, but they weigh.)», It imposes.
This time, the Prime Minister had his orange tie, perhaps orangist, we won’t know.
The PS deputy recalls that in 2014 in Wales, Elio Di Rupo was in current affairs and that it was the following Prime Minister, Charles Michel, to do the job, and he is right, it is for “demystify the use you make of Elio Di Rupo declarations“, But he does not demystify those of Paul Magnette, because there it is the Prime Minister who is right.
Then comes a topical debate, with the same, more Benoît Lutgen (the committed), an Open VLD deputy who follows the time trial from the Tour de France on his computer, and a deputy for the Vlaams Belang who had brandished an Israeli flag in the Flemish parliament, On Gaza and the European Israel-Union Association Agreementthat some want to terminate given the massive human rights violations to which one of its two signatories is engaged in Gaza.
The MP for Vlaams Belang who had brandished an Israeli flag says that he would have been better to name Georges-Louis Bouchez Minister of Foreign Affairs, “rather than the leftist» Maxime Prévotwho “talks about a genocide in Gaza”. Raoul Hedebouw in Dutch asks how far Israel will go before Europe reacts. The young VLD deputy who follows the time trial From the Tour de France on his little computer is not here to do semantics. Benoît Lutgen congratulates the Minister Prévot for having moved the lines at European level because article 2 of the association agreement was flouted every day by Israellike human rights, there is no doubt. Christophe Lacroix believes that Belgium has a personal government government when it comes to condemning Israel, and asks if the position of Bart de Wever, who said he did not want to review the association agreement initiates that of the government.
Bart De Wever doesn’t like it, so he wants to lesson for his less talented historian colleague from the University of Liège. “”Mr. Lacroix, the list of lies you told was already very long, now you added one that was unacceptable: I never said that nothing should be done on this association agreement, I said that it would not have an immediate impact on the dramatic humanitarian situation. I never said that personally you should not do anything on this treaty of association ”, he repeats.
Then Christophe Lacroix rereads his intervention. He quotes the president of the foreign affairs committee, of the CD&V, He quotes Belga who has taken up the comments of the Prime Ministerand asks “but who lied in this room?”. Benoît Lutgen agrees “But yes, it’s true”. Bart De Wever pretends to be nothing, because the hour turns and we must continue.
Raoul Hedebouw must still question the first on the union mobilization of June 25. «Everybody wants change, nobody wants to changemany people will not be satisfied immediately, it’s true. But the wisdom of the crowdI believe, I am a curator: the majority of the population knows that these reforms are inevitable, remediation, reform, activatethis is the only way, ”replies Bart de Wever.
And Raoul Hedebouw must still question the first on the taxation of capital gains. He introduced four questions, which gives him eight minutes, but he will not use them. “I only know how to lose money, not to earn it,” laughs Bart de Wever, and on the details he has an idea, maybe the chief of staff of Jan Jambon has “A lesson to give».
Et Raoul Hedebouw Doit Encore Ask the first on indexing of allowancesbut it is almost 4:30 pm, “I’m not going to monopolize the word”. The chairman of the committee then gives the word to the deputies still present, but there are already almost any more“I thought there would be more colleagues, but too bad,” comments Raoul Hedebouw. “But go come, come on!” I am ready, like a boxer, ”says Bart de Wever, removing his glasses. But we move on to the question of an N-VA deputy and a Vlaams Belang deputy on the repatriation of Abdelkader Beliraj, then of an N-VA deputy on the solar panels hacked by China. “”I have the Whatsapp coordinates of the Chinese Foreign Ministerwe will see when the prices are negative, ”replies Bart de Wever.
“I try to be optimistic, it’s not my nature.”
There is almost no one left and the Prime Minister accepts to stay the time the presents ask their question. We left Philippe Courard (PS) to arrive from the plenary, he must question the first on the “additional F35 public market». “I’m not going to be too long,” he said, he has three minutes and finished just five minutes. Wever’s first asks if he has not already answered that, in fact he has already talked about it three times since morning, but he begins by explaining that he had “agreed to extend the session since I saw that you had patiently waited”.
So, patiently, he explains that according to him “Belgium could not do other than buying additional F35, because there is no European fifth generation fighter, Europeans should have thought about it all together 20 years ago, that if you want one of the sixth, you have to get started now, there is already Two projects but they are competitors, it’s criminalthe two must be united ”. An intervention which he presents as his personal vision while adding that she is part of the revised government’s revised vision for defense. “It’s a little more than my personal vision, finally,” he rectifies. We laugh and the session is lifted on this new asset in the vast vis comic de Bart de Wever: the rehearsal comic.
