Bouchez annoys Arizona parties after leaving crucial talks for press interview

Bouchez annoys Arizona parties after leaving crucial talks for press interview
MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez arrives for the National Congress to open the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) party greetings for the year 2025, in Tournai, Sunday 5 January 2025. Credit: Belga

MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez irritated fellow prospective coalition partners for the new Federal Government negotiators by leaving talks to attend an interview on Sunday evening.

The leader of the liberal party Mouvement Réformateur (MR) is one of the key players in Federal Government negotiations. On Sunday evening, he rankled his prospective 'Arizona' partners by leaving talks to participate in an interview with RTL-TV1.

CD&V and Les Engagés told Het Nieuwsblad that N-VA leader and federal formator Bart De Wever rarely calls Bouchez out for disobeying calls for discretion about the content of government formation talks.

During the interview, Bouchez sought to reassure viewers that contentious reforms to unemployment benefits would not apply to over 55-year-olds.

MR has defended the decision to speak to the press, stating that "the interview had no negative impact on the negotiations. Fortunately, we can still decide for ourselves what we can say, where and when. Let's be serious: Sammy Mahdi was on VRT and Théo Francken on VTM."

Both N-VA and CD&V's annual New Year congresses had also paused negotiations this month. Talks been ongoing for over 200 days, with the next progress report deadline, set by the Belgian King, is expected at the end of January.

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