Ecolo Demands Parliament President's Resignation Over Procedural Violations

The Ecolo party is demanding the immediate resignation of Benoît Dispa, the president of the Parliament of the French-Speaking Community (FWB). The ecologists accuse Dispa of failing in his mission to uphold parliamentary procedures, citing two instances where he allegedly bent the rules during the review of a decree-program.

Ecolo claims that the ruling majority, composed of MR and Les Engagés, is pushing through the text by "force," bypassing established democratic safeguards. Specifically, they criticize the majority for preventing the decree-program from being sent to the Council of State for review and for disregarding a provision that mandates an 84-hour waiting period between the approval of a commission report and its plenary session examination. The party warns that these actions constitute an unacceptable deviation from democratic norms.

Bénédicte Linard, the Ecolo group leader, stated that the Parliament's president is responsible for ensuring adherence to the rules, which belong to all parliamentarians, not just the majority. She argued that Dispa's actions, particularly in a tense political climate requiring heightened vigilance, represent a failure to fulfill this crucial duty. Ecolo insists that democratic regulations must be respected, especially when citizen mobilization is high.

The budget commission of the FWB parliament approved the decree-program on Tuesday, with the majority voting against the opposition. However, both Ecolo and the PTB refused to endorse the rapporteur's report, leading to a delay in its progression to the plenary session. A conference of presidents will be reconvened to schedule a new commission meeting to verify the report's accuracy before it can be formally approved. The plenary session is now expected to take place next week.

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The President of the Parliament has the mission to ensure that the rules of this institution are respected, which do not belong to the majority, but to all parliamentarians. Twice in two days, he has failed in this mission, in a context of significant tensions which required, on the contrary, increased vigilance.