Alexia Bertrand, the Secretary of State for the Budget, has expressed her desire to run for federal elections in Brussels in 2024 on a joint list with the Open VLD and the MR. However, the creation of a common list is proving difficult as the two liberal parties cannot agree on the matter. The MR would have to give up one of its federal parliamentary seats to give it to a running mate from the Flemish Liberal Party, and many MR proxies are reluctant to share the pie without proper consideration. In November 2020, relations between the MR and Open VLD became strained, but Georges-Louis Bouchez and Egbert Lachaert have since patched things up. Sophie Wilmès, who left the federal government for family reasons but is still popular, does not perceive the arithmetical or political benefits of a common list. The hope for a joint MR-Open VLD list, therefore, remains uncertain.
Alexia Bertrand dreams of running in 2024 on a common list that would bring together the liberal family for the federal elections in Brussels. The Secretary of State for the Budget mentioned this ambition in Free of the weekend. But this hope nourished by the former head of the MR group in the Brussels parliament, who went to the Open VLD at the end of the year, comes up against a wall. The two liberal formations are far from having an agreement on the question.
In principle, the MR wishes to get closer to its sister party. But the cost of this union, when we talk about creating a common list, is considered very high by the French-speaking blues. The Open VLD is too weak in Brussels and would not bring additional seats in the event of an electoral union, we hear. On the contrary, it is the MR which should give up one of its federal parliamentary seats to give it to a running mate from the Flemish Liberal Party (to Alexia Bertrand, in this case).
”A seat transfer”
”A common list would simply be a transfer of seatsreports a heavyweight of MR. The truth is that we didn’t even manage to form a common group in the Chamber… We have to be consistent. If we had been placed in a dynamic where, during this legislature, things had happened naturally in common, as is the case between Ecolo and Groen, we would be less in a mathematical logic…”
Among the reformers, we also note that the party authorities have not made a clear decision on the hypothesis of a common list for the Chamber in the Brussels constituency. The majority of MR proxies are reluctant to share the pie with the Open VLD without consideration. Especially since relations with the Flemish liberals have experienced very strong turbulence. The two formations, which however emphatically defended their political link, bickered very sharply at the end of the year. Exasperated by criticism from MR deputies against Alexander De Croo and against Vincent Van Quickenborne, the president of the Open VLD, Egbert Lachaert, had declared in November that the MR was sinking into a populist attitude, “almost ‘copied and pasted’ from that of Vlaams Belang”.
A few days after this strong declaration, Georges-Louis Bouchez and Egbert Lachaert had however decided to patch things up. In the future, MR and Open VLD had to better coordinate their media outlets on federal issues, the French-speaking liberals agreed to preserve the image of the Prime Minister in their expression, the old idea of a common group in the House was going to be re-examined, the same for the hypothesis of a common list in Brussels.
Reconciliation between MR and Open VLD.
To come back to this last point, President Georges-Louis Bouchez is in favor of it because the Liberals’ electoral meeting would be part of the broader framework of the historical and doctrinal relationship with the Open VLD.
In addition, the opinion of Sophie Wilmès will count in this file. The former prime minister and former foreign minister left the federal government for family reasons. Still enjoying great popularity, she will probably take the MR (or MR/Open VLD) list to the federal level in Brussels in 2024. Sophie Wilmès is not against a common list but, like many elected MRs, it does not perceive its arithmetical interest nor its political interest. However, she remains open on the question, no door is closed on her side.
A deputy seat, the price of solidarity?
The hope evoked by Alexia Bertrand is therefore likely to be disappointed. Could elements of strategy change things? Currently, the Open VLD is part of the Vervoort government while the MR has remained confined to the regional opposition. At the federal level, there are desires to form a coalition in 2024 without the party of Georges-Louis Bouchez. And if the Flemish liberals promised, against a mandate of deputy, to demand the presence of the MR at their side in the future federal majority and the future Brussels majority? This exchange of good practices does not make the MR dream: solidarity within the liberal family during the constitution of government majorities should be indisputable evidence and not the result of a deal for which the MR should have paid the price…
In conclusion, while Alexia Bertrand dreams of a common list between the MR and the Open VLD for the 2024 federal elections in Brussels, it seems that the hope may be unrealistic. The cost of forming a union, specifically creating a common list, is considered too high by the French-speaking blues. While the MR wishes to get closer to its sister party, the Open VLD is too weak in Brussels and would not bring additional seats in the event of an electoral union. The majority of MR proxies are also reluctant to share the pie with the Open VLD without consideration, especially since relations between the two formations have experienced strong turbulence. However, President Georges-Louis Bouchez is in favor of forming a common list, and the opinion of Sophie Wilmès will also count in this file. In any case, the hope for such a union may be far from becoming a reality, and the cost of solidarity within the liberal family should not come at the price of a deputy seat.