Flemish Minister-President Jan Jambon proceeded, on Thursday afternoon, four days late to read his government’s September declaration, the latter having failed to agree in time on the budget and purchasing power measures at the start of the week. CD&V ministers unsuccessfully demanded that the growth package, the former child benefit, be linked to the index. The N-VA and Open Vld wanted nothing to do with this. “The last few days have been ‘anything but a pretty picture of how we want to govern Flanders’, but the Flemish government has an ‘incredibly strong package for the benefit of our families and our businesses’.
The Minister-President was referring to the envelope of 4 billion euros, to which is added 1 billion euros in loans and guarantees to support Flemish companies.
In his speech, Jan Jambon repeatedly referred to the difficulties his team had encountered over the past week. “You have before you a humble man,” he said, “because I realize that the process we went through as a government was not a pretty sight. We have to learn from it.”
The Flemish minister-president described Monday’s performance as painful, acknowledging that his “ego took a hit”. “What I had to endure here on Monday was painful. Painful because I realized that then I had to disappoint the Flemish people. But the next day we get up and start fighting again. That’s what I I did,” said Jan Jambon. This is one of the times when the Minister-President was applauded on the benches of the majority, with the notorious exception of several elected CD&V.
Mr. Jambon also admitted that “harsh words and reproaches” had been expressed, including towards his person. “Some statements were insulting and humiliating. Everyone chooses the style they use, I’m not going to lower myself to that,” he commented.
In this context, the Minister-President finally “worried about the degradation of political morals”.
According to Mr. Jambon, “targeted and social” measures were chosen without jeopardizing the health of Flemish public finances. Thus, the Flemish budget will temporarily sink into the red, but the objective is to achieve a balanced budget by 2027 at the latest. In recent weeks, the Jambon government has often been accused of waiting too long to take action. “I don’t agree,” Ham said. “The complexity of this crisis does not allow for hasty action or getting carried away,” he added.