The Walloon liberal MR party only agreed to vote in favour of Walloon Finance Minister Jean-Luc Crucke's tax bill to keep the regional government stable, said party president Georges-Louis Bouchez on Sunday.
"This bill has been voted for in the name of governmental stability, but you will not make me say I am enthusiastic about its content," Bouchez said on the RTL-TVi, reports the Belga News Agency.
The vote on a draft decree for fairer taxation, prepared by the Finance Minister, also an MR member, sparked an internal crisis within the MR party and the Walloon Government last week. Many liberal ministers contested the system put in place by the minister, which includes taxing utility vehicles and charging registration fees for donations.
On Sunday, their party’s president expressed support for the dissenting legislators.
"One needs to stop seeing parliamentarians as rubber stamps for texts that come from the government," Bouchez said on RTL-TVi, adding that the parliamentarians were "irreproachable in this matter."
The crisis is evidence of the poor relations between the MR president and the Finance Minister, according to Belga.
However, Bouchez declined to comment on the issue, noting that he had already referred repeatedly, whether personally or through his staff, to the problems arising from the text.
"Being a minister is an honour you receive thanks to your political family," he said. "You are not elected a minister, it’s about teamwork with parliamentarians and one’s party. It’s not a personal adventure."
