Former Walloon Minister Jean-Luc Crucke defected from the French-speaking conservative-liberal party MR to the centrist party Les Engagés on Thursday. Crucke becomes the second senior figure to quit the party, after his federal counterpart Alexia Bertrand joined Open VLD recently.
Crucke's defection did not come as a surprise to political commentators, due to the visible tensions between him and leader Georges-Louis Bouchez, who has shifted the party further to the right, despite the centre being MR's usual home.
Moreover, issues between them both came ahead in 2021, when Bouchez criticised Crucke's tax plan for the region of Wallonia, which included increased tax rates.
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As a result, Crucke has opted to join Les Engagés on Thursday, which was traditionally a political home for Christian democrats before rebranding as one of Wallonia and Brussels' leading centrist political forces.
The regional minister explained that he switched parties to continue defending his social-liberal beliefs "which were stifled by the Trump-like leanings of MR's leadership," to which the party is yet to reply.
Translation of tweet: "Welcome to Jean-Luc Crucke, with whom we will deliver a project of courage, hope and political alternative. He affirms to be aligned with the new, progressive and modern ambitions displayed by Les Engagés in our manifesto written on 12 March 2022."
Crucke had also called in the past for a French-speaking centrist alliance to be formed with DéFI, an idea rejected by the latter's leader François De Smet.
Funnily enough however, another regional MP recently made the opposite move to Crucke, as Rachid Azaoum joined MR to "to further promote access to entrepreneurship and greater civil liberties."
