In a recent book, he stated that one of the current challenges is to “reaffirm the meaning and value of work”. During the pre-electoral congress of his party, Sunday February 18 in Brussels, the president of the Belgian French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) and mayor of Charleroi Paul Magnette surprised by clarifying his remarks: “The ideal” to achieve is, he says, the week of 32 hours in four days. Without a salary reduction and with compensatory hiring.
It’s a “bad signal at a time of labor shortage and rising costs linked to automatic wage indexation”, the Business Federation immediately replied. In Wallonia, there are 200,000 unemployed and 120,000 unfilled jobs, mainly due to deficiencies in the education system.
Candidate for the post of Prime Minister after the June elections, Mr. Magnette sets the bar very high, after proposing to increase the minimum wage to 2,800 euros – against 2,080 euros currently – and suggesting the granting of days off additional benefits to workers, in order to enable them to have “right to happiness”which is, says Mr. Magnette “my brand of socialism”.
Much applauded
Even nuanced – “We won’t get there all at once, but we must take big steps in this direction” –, the statement was widely applauded by his troops. On the other hand, it did not enthuse the Flemish right and center parties, with whom the leader of the PS should, in any event, negotiate after the elections in June. If, at least, the results of his training are commensurate with his ambitions: to remain first in Wallonia and Brussels, even if the radical left intends to cut corners for him. Moreover, this radical proposal on working hours is formulated while the PS’s new adversary is the Belgian Labor Party (PTB).
The camp of “nationalists and conservatives lurking in the shadows”, in the words of the socialist leader, does not like his project either. “Work less while earning the same? I can assure you it doesn’t work.” swept aside Alexia Bertrand, a liberal, secretary of state for the budget. “Unpayable delirium”decided Egbert Lachaert, member of the same party, the Open VLD. “A third of the active population of Wallonia does not work, but the PS pleads for less work”, quipped the nationalist Bart De Wever.
The Minister of Finance, the Christian Democrat Vincent Van Peteghem, for his part calls for a “honest speech” on “the enormous budgetary challenges” facing the country. Belgium, invited in particular by the European Commission to “correct your trajectory”should, according to the latest estimates, find 40 billion euros in savings by 2031.