Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon leaves on Sunday for a multi-day visit to Spain, in which he will visit the Basque Country and Catalonia. In the margins of this, he gave an interview to VRT Radio1 in which he had to acknowledge that something has gone wrong in his Flemish government since last week.
On Tuesday evening, the Flemish Minister for the Environment, Zuhal Demir, suddenly announced that she will not issue a permit for a gas-fired power station in Vilvoorde. This gas-fired power station is nevertheless crucial for the nuclear phase-out that the federal government is pursuing.
Not so much that decision, but the way in which angered the coalition partners in the Flemish government. After all, Open VLD and CD&V are also part of the federal government. Certainly when it became known that Demir would have made her decision on October 29, but that she only communicated a week and a half later. And that all this time she failed to inform her coalition partners.
Jan Jambon now acknowledges that the way Demir has worked has caused tensions in his team. “What I do feel is that there is a problem with the style and communication of, for example, colleague Demir,” Jambon told Radio1. “And if that leads to a trust problem within the Flemish government – we discussed this at length on Friday – then it is my job to restore that trust, and I will include it.”
On Saturday, Open VLD chairman Egbert Lachaert also talked about the way Zuhal Demir had approached the matter in an interview with Radio 1. “I think there is a problem of trust when a minister makes such an important decision without informing colleagues from CD&V and Open VLD, or even the N-VA’s own ministers. So I think Jan Jambon will have some work to do with restoring confidence.”
Egbert Lachaert — © ISOPIX
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Lachaert: “very happy with the signal from Jambon”
Open VLD chairman Egbert Lachaert says he is very happy with the signal from Flemish Prime Minister Jan Jambon (N-VA). That’s what he said in The Seventh Day on One. “The decision is that of Minister Demir alone, but the communication, how this has remained in the drawer for ten days when you are negotiating a climate plan, that is not a detail not to say that.”
“This can’t keep repeating itself,” Lachaert continued. “It is a collegiate government, so you also have to talk to each other if you go in a certain direction in crucial files.”
“This can’t keep repeating itself,” Lachaert continued. “It is a collegiate government, so you also have to talk to each other if you go in a certain direction in crucial files.”
Coens feels vicarious shame
CD&V minister Joachim Coens also spoke on Sunday. He says he still feels vicarious shame. “Energy and climate policy are serious matters, to keep a profile on them…”
Lachaert believes that something should change in the structure of the country, for example to prevent Belgium from arriving at a climate summit again without a joint plan. “What’s missing from our federal structure, and it can’t last, is that we need to move towards a state reform where eventually someone will play the umpire. When it comes to commitments, it cannot be that Belgium has to land there without a position that is not supported (at the climate summit in Glasgow, ed.).”
For Lachaert, only the federal government can take on that refereeing role. This is also the case in other federal states, he argued.
Coens pointed out that the Consultation Committee has proven its effectiveness during the corona crisis. “The production of energy is federal and the permits are Flemish. That won’t change tomorrow,” he said. “So it’s not about having the last word, but about working together and seeing how you can make it a common goal.”
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