The Belgian Federal Government should stop penalising the working middle class "every time we are short of money somewhere," said the leader of the Francophone liberal MR party, Georges-Louis Bouchez on VTM News on Sunday.
According to Bouchez, the Federal Government (that MR is part of) wants to "try again to impose taxes on smaller things that affect the same people again, those who provide the wealth in our country." Bouchez thinks the Flemish Christian-Democrat CD&V is on the right track with its tax cut proposal, which would reduce taxes by €3 billion.
"Wallonia and Brussels would have the lowest employment rate in the entire EU if they were countries. If Wallonia were a department of France, it would have the lowest GDP per inhabitant," said Bouchez, pointing out "ample evidence of the problems of capital formation, investment and wealth creation in our country."
He added that people will certainly not be helped during this crisis with tax increases. "Because it will mainly affect people who have been able to save." Bouchez also defended the federal housing bonus for people with a second home, as "these are people who have worked all their lives. And what do we do? We are going to make it a bit harder for them."
'A second home is a safe investment'
At the same time, the unemployment rate is not being addressed, he said. "We have a social policy that represents €130 billion in our country. Can we not put that in order before we start harassing working people?"
"For us, someone who buys a second home is not necessarily a rich person, but someone who has saved their whole life. Someone who is rich might have 200 homes," Bouchez said. "Indeed, we may not need to help that person with his 201st home."
Additionally, he pointed out that buying a second home is a "safe investment" for a lot of self-employed people, civil servants and middle-class people. "The middle class wants their children to be able to live better than their parents. If you can buy a second home to support your children, should you be judged in our country?"
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"What will that yield? €10 million? While we need to find €3 billion. That is why we need structural reforms." Bouchez advocated labour market reforms by limiting unemployment benefits over time and also reducing them over time.
MR also wants social reforms and a ceiling on "support measures that some people pile on," he said. "They have the living wage, they have the social tariff and then they have social housing. As well as support for shelter and transport. We may have to introduce a ceiling for that."
