Guest of the program Faxe à Buxant, Maxime Prévot was questioned about the possibility of a new tax which would serve to meet the requirements of NATO, which asks its member states to devote 5 % of their GDP to La Défense.
“It is not 5 % for the military aspect,” said the Minister of Foreign Affairs immediately. “It is 3.5 % for pure military defense and 1.5 % for not necessarily military security. It can be for the fight against terrorism, cyber attacks, the fight against disinformation … But clearly, Belgium does not have the budgetary capacities to reach these investment thresholds neither short nor in the medium term. »»
Faced with this, our country cannot remain stronghold and must find a solution, says Maxime Prévot. “We will have to increase our investment expenses, it’s very clear, but we have to do it at a pace that is sustainable. The objective is not to increase the taxation of the Belgians. »»
A “NATO tax”?
“We must not have taboo,” assumes the former president of the commitments. “We must be able to debate everything. It will cost billions and, to my knowledge, the money is not growing on the trees. My wish is first of all to preserve social security and health care, reasons why I prefer that we are attentive to tax levers rather than having dark expenses or additional cuts. »»
“We know very well that we are in a country that cannot go into debt endlessly, or further weigh down the taxation that weighs very heavily on the shoulders. This is why as there is no possibility of finding a miracle solution, we must debate it with serenity, without evacuating anything as a scenario. »»
Fire insurance
“You have to see this investment as fire insurance. When you receive it, you never want to pay it and you have the feeling of doing it for nothing as long as the house does not burn. But the day the house takes fire, we are happy to have done it. We live in a house, Belgium, which is in a world that is on fire everywhere. We can naively believe that the flames will never reach us, but it seems naive, we must be able to be careful to defend the security of our population. »»
