Ongoing chaos surrounding tax reform in Belgium shows that the country is “finished” and should be abandoned as soon as possible, a separatist party in the country has claimed.
The comments came from members of Vlaams Belang, a nationalist party that wants to see the Dutch-speaking Flanders region leave Belgium.
“No reform is possible in this miserable country,” Wouter Vermeersch, an MP for Vlaams Belang lamented.
Vlaams Belang is backing calls issued by other politicians for an early election to take place in the country, although members have emphasised that they think Belgium itself is the problem.
“Nothing is possible in this country anymore and the drama is that the Flemish are being dragged into the Belgian debt quagmire,” Vermeersch added, speculating that workers in Flanders are not just the highest taxed people in Europe or the world, but “perhaps the entire universe”.
In a statement seen by Brussels Signal, the party derided the current Belgian Government’s failure to implement promised tax cuts for workers in the Flanders region.
Despite Belgian and Flemish workers facing some of the highest tax burdens in the world, talks within Alexander De Croo’s government on cutting payments to the state have reportedly stalled.
This has been partly blamed on opposition from French-speaking parties in the Belgian Government.
Vermeersch’s exasperation illustrates a shift in pro-separatist sentiment in Belgium among the Flemish population, which has seen a rapid rise in pro-independence parties such as Vlaams Belang and the N-VA.
Although such a desire for independence has historically been rooted in cultural and political ties, issues to do with economics have now come to the fore.
Having become one of the wealthiest parts of both Belgium and Europe, Flanders regularly finds itself paying for services in neighbouring Wallonia, the country’s French-speaking region.
One estimate published last year suggested that the Dutch-speaking region was forced to transfer around €12.9 billion to Wallonia in 2021.
Some have expressed doubt as to whether such transfers even help Wallonia in the long run.
“Decades of transfers have not closed the gap between Flanders and Wallonia,” one economist said. “Transfers are, unfortunately, wasted money.”
This is made worse by an ideological divergence between the pair, the economist said, with Wallonia voters overwhelmingly siding with left-wing parties as Flanders votes for the Right.
