The war between Georges-Louis Bouchez and the unions took on a new form. So far, the president of the MR has been shooting trade unions on sight, accusing them of squandering public money. The defendants responded by sending activists to MR events to, for example, throw eggs at the Montois.
This week, it is in justice that the conflict continues. The FGTB and the National Union of Socialist Mutual Funds (UNMS) want to order Georges-Louis Bouchez to pay 5,001 euros for having, according to them, defamed them. On Tuesday November 22, 2022, the municipal councilor Mons-en-Mieux compared “in barely veiled terms, the FGTB and the UNMS to mafia organizations, aided by the elected representatives of the Socialist Party”indicates the summons.
Throwing eggs at the Georges-Louis Bouchez gala dinner: the leader of Mons en Mieux calls for accountability
This famous Tuesday of autumn, the liberal president indeed charged with vehemence the way in which the Service d’Accueil d’Enfants (SAE) of the CPAS of Mons had been transferred to the asbl Enfance Solidaris. A transfer that raised conflicts of interest and legal errors, in the eyes of the municipal opposition.
”Thanks to your political training, [les syndicats et les mutualités] manage to be placed everywhere: joint management of the Forem, joint management of the TEC and now, well, we also come to work on services which normally come under the CPAS. […] In a democracy, when you’re not elected and you can manage so many things, often it’s parallel organizations, things that are otherwise illegal… I’m not going to use the word […] but there are sometimes, in southern Italy, organizations like that that manage to manage a whole series of structures without having any democratic legitimacy.”
Considering themselves victims of “defamation, slander and insult”the representatives of the FGTB and the UNMS, represented by Marc Uyttendael, demand, in addition to the compensation of 5001 euros, that the judgment be published in the press organs which echoed the remarks made by Mr. Bouchez, otherwise this latter will have to pay penalties.
“Nothing constitutes defamation”
But this legal action does not seem to worry the Montois unduly. “Nothing in my comments constitutes defamation. They know it so well that they do not attack me in criminal proceedings. However, this raises three questions. They use public means or at least the money of their affiliates to settle accounts politically. But I don’t see how a mutuality can use social security money, the money that should normally help sick people, to carry out a cabal against a political opponent.
The municipal councilor believes that this raises questions in terms of freedom of expression and “the ability of socialist trade unions and mutual funds to accept contradiction”. In the past, the FGTB has indeed filed a criminal complaint against the liberal. The complaint was left unaddressed. The SETCa also went to a gala in Mons-en-Mieux with eggs, insults and smoke bombs. “For mutual funds, I have a major problem because I question their small business and the advantages they enjoy. The notion of democracy is very relative for them. As soon as they have a problem with someone, they sue them.”
The third question relates to the legal personality of trade unions. “Who is attacking me? Me, when I want to attack the socialist union, I can’t because it has no legal personality. On the other hand, here, he can take legal action against me. So either it has legal personality or it doesn’t…”
The president of the French-speaking Liberals has taken on a lawyer and foresees that the case will not be resolved anytime soon.