The president of the MR discussed Thursday for nearly half an hour with Tom Van Grieken, the leader of Vlaams Belang, at the invitation of the VRT.
On RTBF, Secretary of State Thomas Dermine (PS) took note of the “political fact” that this debate constitutes. If the far right has never known the Flemish or French scores in French-speaking Belgium, it is thanks to the media cordon sanitaire, he pointed out. “There are very serious studies that show that excluding far-right parties from debates makes them remain low at the polls. Georges-Louis Bouchez knows this and today he is making a conscious choice to break the cordon sanitaire which is a well-established tradition on the French-speaking side,” he said on Thursday evening.
“We don’t debate the far right, we fight it,” tweeted Ecolo co-president Rajae Maouane.
In opposition to the federal parliament, DéFI also expressed its disappointment. “In what will always differentiate the MR from DéFI, it will be necessary to add, alas, the respect of the sanitary cordon towards the extreme right. And it’s sad. Really,” said the president, François De Smet.
“A mortifying self”
On social networks, Mr. Bouchez wanted to justify his choice. “We fight (far-right parties) by debating and dismantling their arguments, not in a deadly environment,” he replied to Ms. Maouane. And to add, retaining only the political aspect of the sanitary cordon, to the address of a surfer who challenged him: “How did I break the sanitary cordon? The sanitary cordon is not to conclude agreements with the extreme right and the extreme left. For the debates, in Flanders, the Belang has been on the set for a long time. So what did I break? »
On Friday, on the set of LN24, Mr. Bouchez also pointed out that the debate had been recorded, which made it possible to remove outrageous elements from it if necessary, and that it was on the Flemish public channel where the cord media health does not apply. He also recalled that thousands of French-speaking Belgian viewers had watched the Macron-Le Pen debate on French channels on Wednesday, during which the far-right candidate was able to explain her program in depth.
“I am not campaigning to challenge the sanitary cordon on the French-speaking side”, he however specified, but he believes that it should be extended to the PTB, another extremist party which threatens, according to him, the fundamental rights. . “If we want a cordon sanitaire with regard to the far right, I don’t see why we wouldn’t do it for the far left,” he said.
In 2019, the PTB, a unitary party, also sparked controversy when its president, Peter Mertens, debated with Mr. Van Grieken. At the time, Mr. Bouchez had regretted the common points that the two presidents found in the fight “against the establishment”. “Extremes attract but the cordon sanitaire is non-negotiable for the MR,” he tweeted at the time.
“At the counter of each Flemish café you break the sanitary cordon”
Unlike in French-speaking Belgium, representatives of the far right have long been involved in the media debate in Flanders, where their electoral weight is disproportionate to that of their French-speaking counterparts. Brussels MP Els Ampe (Open Vld) pointed this out to Mr. Bouchez’s detractors.
“At the counter of each Flemish café you break the sanitary cordon because one person in five votes Vlaams Belang. Not talking to people is rude and haughty. Georges-Louis Bouchez is snubbed by hypocrites for his audacity to defend liberal ideology vis-à-vis nationalist ideology,” she said.