New revelations about the secretary of the Walloon Parliament, the newspaper Le Soir reveals the unusually high travel and travel expenses of the secretary Frédéric Janssens, who was sometimes accompanied, notably by Jean-Claude Marcourt, the President of the Parliament, when he traveled to Dubai.
After moral harassment and the explosion of costs in connection with the expansion of the Walloon Parliament, it is now a mission to Dubai that the official is being accused of. Jean-Claude Marcourt, President of the Assembly, was traveling. And according to Le Soir, the sum of the trip to the world exhibition amounts to around 19,000 euros.
For us it’s a scandal
“At a time when there is a lot of talk about the financial difficulties at the level of the Walloon region, but above all about the difficulties faced by households with energy costs, with purchasing power and we finally see political leaders who publicly waste money on luxury travel. It’s a scandal for us, of course.”starts Germain Mugemangango, head of the PTB group in the Parliament of Wallonia.
The two men would have traveled business class. Ticket cost: 4,266.01 euros. There are also rooms in a luxury hotel: 542 euros per night and person. Finally, a guide would have been paid to accompany the delegation. Invoice amount: 3,446.22 euros for four days.
“Expenditure on this trip is clearly a problem as the amounts are quite inflated. They clearly exceed what was on the table at the time this project was discussed.”stresses Stéphane Hazée, Walloon MEP for Ecology. “It’s always easy to explain the game again after the end, everyone has an opinion, everyone knows how to do it. As soon as a decision is made, the registry offices organize the travel and I don’t book the plane tickets.”says André Frédéric, leader of the PS group in the Walloon Parliament.
It’s always easy to redefine the game when it’s over
Jean-Claude Marcourt, who was contacted this morning, explains that he took part in this trip on the basis of a decision by Parliament’s enlarged Bureau, in which all the political groups take part. Regarding his business class journey, he argues that this is the norm in most institutions when the flight is longer than 5 hours.
An expanded office of the Walloon Parliament on the explosion in spending was precisely planned today. This session of the enlarged Bureau of the Walloon Parliament started at 11 am. The first issue was the budget overrun on the expansion site of the Walloon Parliament. But several political groups wanted to put this famous trip to Dubai on the agenda. They want to question the President of the Walloon Parliament, Jean-Claude Marcourt, directly. What did he know about the amount of expenses? And above all, what role did the now suspended employee Frédéric Janssens play?
“I would ask Mr. Marcourt to come and explain what the point of this journey was? What’s in it for him? What was the positive for Wallonia? And why such a price?”, asks François Desquesnes, President of the Les Engagés group in the Walloon Parliament. Jacqueline Galant, Walloon deputy MR, specifies: “We will ask the President of the Assembly for evidence and explanations, since today we only have the President as an interlocutor.”.