Prime Minister Alexander De Croo (Open Vld) can write a new record to his name: yesterday it was the longest consultation committee since he held the key to the Sixteen. The point of contention of the seven-hour meeting were the catering terraces. The Flemish government, MR and PS had already announced at the start that they would sell their skin dearly: 1 May, then the terraces would have to reopen. But the tandem De Croo-Vandenbroucke did not want to know about that: they proposed 10 May, the Monday before the Ascension weekend. The two camps therefore faced each other several times with drawn knives. “At a certain point it got really, really tough. The supporters of May 1 had spoken and then I thought that the whole discussion could explode, ”says someone at the table.
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