Mr De Wever had already referred to it this year in an interview published on Saturday by the newspaper ‘De Tijd’, saying: “I have thought for some time that the opportunity to reform legalism has passed”. “As at various times in our national history, we will have to move on to extra-legal reform. This is not the first time. It has also happened with education,” he added.
The president of the Flemish nationalists and mayor of Antwerp repeated his message on Sunday on the VRT.
“In the past too, major reforms have been implemented outside the law,” he said.
“All the major reforms were introduced extra-legal and then legalized, I spoke at length with (former CVP Prime Minister) Jean-Luc Dehaene,” De Wever added.
“In this country, you can have one certainty: once you have (obtained) autonomy when it comes to governance, it will never recover, because why would you do anything with a part of the country that fundamentally thinks differently and vote fundamentally differently,” he continued, referring to Wallonia.
Mr. De Wever further stated that he would only want to take part in a federal government – after the 2024 general elections – if he was guaranteed such fundamental reform of the country. “I will not participate in the status quo. Because then the Flemish money will be lost,” he said.
“I don’t think anything can ever work in a Belgian context. Not with the PS. -VA, the MR, the CD&V and the Open Vld, editor’s note). It no longer makes sense,” the president of the nationalists told ‘Tijd’. “As long as we are attached to Wallonia, that (the reform of the Belgian State) will not work”.
Also on Saturday, Mr. De Wever had, during a thematic day of his party in Antwerp, emphasized Flemish sovereignty. “I advocate a restoration of our popular sovereignty. And therefore, that the sovereign Flemish people can only transfer their sovereignty by means of a treaty ratified by the Flemish parliament. This is the spirit of confederalism”, he had said
On this occasion, the party launched a website devoted to confederalism, whose address is: www.confederalisme.vlaanderen.