For the first time in 11 years, a federal government has “special powers”. Last time, the House granted this specific provision to the government led at the time by CD & V Herman Van Rompuy in order to fight the A / H1N1 flu epidemic more effectively and more quickly.
What are “special powers” for?
In October 2009, Parliament (Chamber and Senate) had therefore granted special powers to the government of the time (and more particularly to the Minister of Health, PS Laurette Onkelinx) to enable it to fight the pandemic influenza A / H1N1 “which would pose a particular and serious risk to public health“. What did this law allow? The requisition of nurses, nursing assistants, for example. But above all, “special powers” offer the possibility for a government to draft “royal decrees of special powers” which have the same status as a bill passed in Parliament, but without going through the (sometimes long) legislative procedure . The objective of such a device is to move quickly, to be efficient and above all not to have to count on a majority vote in the House. As summarizes the CRISP, “the so-called special powers technique confers on the executive power powers normally exercised by the legislature. “
It should be noted that these “royal decrees of special powers” must be subsequently confirmed by a vote in the Chamber, within a defined period.
An emergency device
The first time that such a process was used (we then spoke of “extraordinary powers”), it was in 1914, so that the King can “take urgent measures required by the state of war“. The orders made at the time have the force of law, directly, without parliamentary confirmation. 1919 to rebuild the country, 1926 to cope with the economic crisis: at the time, a government of national unity led by the Catholic Henri Jaspar, obtained “special powers”. Thereafter, until the Second World War, successive governments will also make use of it, and again during this one (from London), until 1947. It is, for example, by special powers that are made compulsory , December 28, 1944, for all salaried workers, sickness and invalidity insurance, unemployment insurance, old age and premature death insurance, family allowances and annual vacations.
Full government
The different governments which used “special powers” had one thing in common: they all had a majority and were therefore “fully functioning”. This is not the case with the current government in current affairs. We have not found a reference concerning the obligation for a government to be “full exercise” to be able to have “special powers” (even if that can be common sense), whether in the CRISP Notebooks or in one of the bibles of the legislative world, the “principles of legislative technique” of the Council of State. However, after hearing the President of the Senate Sabine Laruelle and the President of the Chamber Patrick Dewael, the path to special powers begins with a vote of confidence in Parliament. The famous vote of confidence which was refused to Charles Michel after the departure of the N-VA from the “Swedish” government in December 2018. Sophie Wilmès is no longer a Prime Minister of a government in current affairs, but she will be , very soon, the first female Prime Minister of a full-service government. Supported from the outside by 7 other parties on a limited program to fight the coronavirus. All thanks to “special powers”.
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