2024-01-13 06:01:00
That’s the difference between Défi and the MR… That people from civil society join a party, I find that extremely positive. Going in front of the voter is taking a real risk. The real question is what these recent arrivals bring. When Didier Reynders brought Florence Reuter to the MR, he recognized that what interested him about her was her notoriety. What interests Georges-Louis Bouchez today about Julie Taton and Marc Ysaye is also their notoriety. What interests me about Michel Claise is the fact that he was an investigating judge for 25 years, that he was a pioneer in the fight against financial crime. Along with that, yes, he has a certain notoriety. But that’s not the main question. This is not enough to justify political commitment.
The Engagés also recruited a lot of personalities from civil society. Do you salute the performance of your centrist rivals?
I have respect for this approach. On the other hand, after the failure of the rapprochement of our two formations, my analysis still remains the same. The Engagés’ bet was to zap their DNA, to zap Christian democracy. They wanted to put together a great program with great personalities. Now they have ideas and they have personalities. But I don’t perceive their identity. I would be unable to summarize in one sentence what the Engagés are… Despite a fantastic communications operation which is partly successful, the Engagés remain intrinsically a conservative party. Soft conservatism, but it’s still conservatism.
gull
Despite a fantastic communications operation which is partly successful, Les Engagés remains intrinsically a conservative party. Soft conservatism, but it’s still conservatism.”
Défi defines itself as a social liberal party but Les Engagés wants to follow the same line. At the MR, Mathieu Michel also wants to bring this doctrinal nuance to life. Everyone defends the same thing….
When I see Mathieu Michel defending liberalism and, on the same page of the newspaper, reading that Marc Ysaye is causing controversy with his “likes” (the new recruit of the MR notably “liked” messages posted by extreme personalities French right, Editor’s note), I tell myself that in the MR, it’s 50 shades of the right… (reference to the campaign launched by the MR which denounces the “50 shades of the left” of other French-speaking groups, Editor’s note). Apart from the PTB, it is true that all parties accept the principle of the market economy. But Défi is more authentically liberal than others on individual rights, on the question of migrants, on entrepreneurship. The MR is very guilty about the unemployed but he talks very little about business creation. Challenge is an alliance between progressive liberals, people from the left, pragmatic ecologists. We pay particular attention to the defense of French-speakers, good governance, and political secularism.
Regarding this last point, you have particularly toughened your tone. You notably associated Écolo with political Islam.
I had to talk about it after the Anderlecht affair (the Greens tried to authorize the wearing of convictional symbols without exception in the municipal administration, Editor’s note). It was not a slip-up, I fully accept it and I will have no problem repeating it to the Greens across the way: Eco is the relay of political Islam. I am also ready to say it again in court since Marie Lecocq (co-president of Ecolo in Brussels) is threatening us with legal action. I’m not saying that Ecolo finances Daesh, however. Political Islam is a movement which has political, associative, and perhaps even academic relays. A current which has time on its side, which is non-violent, which is cultural and which aims little by little to make our modernity compatible with a rigorous vision of Islam. To this end, its supporters use the loopholes in our legislation and public freedoms. When Écolo attempts, in Anderlecht, with an alternative majority including the PTB, to impose his vision by a coup, he is clearly acting as a relay for political Islam.
Are environmentalists, wanting to be “inclusive,” making themselves the useful idiots of political Islam?
There is a large element of naivety in them. Green representatives or activists, by defending inclusiveness and considering neutrality discriminatory, sincerely believe they are working for the common good. They do not realize that they are the relays of political Islam. Is it more conscious for others? It’s to do. But the result is there. This is an issue for example at STIB, where we fought a lot. I tell my friends on the left, at the PS and at Écolo, that they must defend the weakest. And the weakest here is not the person who goes to court to have the right, a few hours a day, to work in a public company with a conviction. The weakest is the person who wants to escape an environment where they could be constrained. This person does not have Unia or Écolo behind them, they only have the neutrality of public services to protect them.
gull
The weakest is the person who wants to escape an environment where they could be constrained. This person does not have Unia or Écolo behind them, they only have the neutrality of public services to protect them.”
Isn’t the hardening of the tone of Défi towards Ecolo also an electoral calculation? We know that your activists criticize you for being Ecolo’s ally in government and for not being tough enough with them.
Écolo remains a democratic party and a government partner. I said the things I thought needed to be said. At Écolo, including in Wallonia, my statement raises questions. We say to ourselves: “If he, who is relatively moderate, says that, then there is something.” Unlike Georges-Louis Bouchez or Georges Dallemagne, I weigh my words, I did not speak about Ecolo’s Islamism. And I fully own my words.
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