Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that Forward minister Melissa Depraetere had said that voters had clearly chosen the Forward governor. He also reported that Forward minister Caroline Gennez had called her podcast a great success and had said that it had reached one in five Flemish people. According to Vande Reyde, the gap between traditional parties and the world of ordinary people had never been so large. #Vooruit #Vlaanderen #Politiek (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that the podcast *Het Wassalon*, for which he claimed 800,000 euros had been allocated, was stopped after 342,619 euros had been spent. He stated that Minister Caro Gennez had initially called the podcast a success because it had reached 1.2 million views, translating that as one in five Flemish people having seen the podcast. According to Vande Reyde, the reach was partly due to 64,000 euros being spent on Meta ads. He argued that views alone said nothing about the impact of a campaign and questioned whether the podcast had actually contributed to the acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals or to the sense of societal acceptance among people with disabilities. He cited an ad that led to an inclusive vocabulary list from Cavaria, featuring terms like “allosexual,” “amatonormativity,” “androphilia,” and “gray asexual.” Vande Reyde criticized the way the government evaluated campaigns, subsidies, and structures like service vouchers, claiming that standards were always found to label such initiatives as successful without determining what had actually changed. Regarding the cessation, he wrote that Gennez attributed it to hate and polarization caused by disinformation, mainly from the parliament, and that she referenced him in that context. Vande Reyde found that reasoning incorrect and stated that Sammy Mahdi, Ben Weyts, Melissa Depraetere, and others in the Flemish podcast world had also criticized the project the previous summer. He argued that the fiasco would yield no lessons and predicted that another useless subsidy would follow. #politiek #socialeimpact #mediaevalutie (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde criticized the reporting on the cessation of the podcast Het Wassalon. He wrote that the media, in his view, uncritically took over the communication from Minister Gennez and that she later provided various reasons for the cessation. According to Vande Reyde, Gennez had said that the podcast had reached one in five Flemish people. He argued that the podcast itself had no reach and that the figures only came from 65,000 euros in online advertisements and short-lived attention following criticism in the summer. Vande Reyde also doubted that hate and threats were the reason for stopping the podcast. He pointed out that Sammy Mahdi, Ben Weyts, and Melissa Depraetere had said in summer interviews that the project was a waste of money. According to him, the media only reported Gennez's version afterward, which he believed further undermined trust in traditional media. #media #politiek #podcast (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde called the expected decision by Minister Caroline Gennez to prematurely terminate the podcast *Het wassalon* remarkable. He wrote that over 300,000 euros had been spent on it and that Gennez attributed the termination to the hatred and campaign surrounding the podcast, even though it had been a great success according to her. Vande Reyde disputed that the podcast had had a large reach: according to him, this was primarily due to 64,000 euros in online advertisements and his own criticism. He stated that Sammy Mahdi, Ben Weyts, and Melissa Depraetere had agreed with him. According to Vande Reyde, Gennez now claimed that the podcast had a large reach and was only stopped because of the reactions surrounding it. He concluded that, in his opinion, no lessons had been learned and that this would therefore continue to happen. #podcast #media #politiek (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that Minister Caroline Gennez had announced that the podcast Het Wassalon would stop prematurely, after more than 300,000 euros were involved according to him. As a reason, Gennez had cited the hate and uproar surrounding the podcast, even though it was a great success. #podcast #CarolineGennez #media (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde called the situation "completely crazy" and wrote that Terzake and others had previously presented him as irrational because he had referred to climate activists as extremists. According to him, one is now experiencing the consequences of what was sown back then. https://t.co/cTnsTHghaP #klimaat #activisme #extremisme (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that he found it incomprehensible that parties, politicians, universities, and the media had, in his opinion, blindly and naively rallied behind violent pro-Palestinian activists in recent years. He argued that this had been a cover for terror, destruction, and vandalism, and had nothing to do with self-determination for a people. He also wrote that the activists at universities had received honorary doctorates and VIP treatment and, according to him, still secretly laughed at what he called a collective delusion. #Palestina #terrorisme #vrijheid (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that Europe, in his opinion, would never match the US in terms of innovation. He pointed to overregulation, too many subsidies, high taxes, and a climate where the media and a large part of the power holders viewed entrepreneurs as a source to finance high government spending. Vande Reyde also stated that people in his country were portrayed as crazy when they admired Elon Musk as an entrepreneur. He accused fact-checker Tim Verheyden of regularly spreading fabricated stories about Musk and said that this, in his opinion, said a lot about the state of Europe. #Innovatie #Ondernemerschap #Europa (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that, in his opinion, it was not a sufficient correction to mention that those involved were members of the PVDA. He argued that they were party-driven and that their testimony was staged. According to him, if an article contained only such testimonies, it was worthless. He added that discussions about fake news and Trump were happening daily in the meantime. #Politiek #Fakenews #PVDA (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that, in his opinion, the media repeatedly selected testimonies from people who were active in the PVDA in reports about the consequences of a smaller government. He stated that one of them said they had to skip meals due to the policy but had money for solidarity trips to Cuba. The measure in question limited child benefits to the age of 23, Vande Reyde wrote. He added that there were exceptions for cases with valid reasons and risk of poverty, but claimed that these did not apply to the activists involved. According to Vande Reyde, the same PVDA activists were at the forefront of various protests, from climate marches to protests against coalition agreements. He also claimed that the media once portrayed an adult PVDA member of parliament as a protesting student. Vande Reyde wrote that this kind of reporting was a reason for the historically low trust in the media. #Media #België #PVDA (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that, in his opinion, tax increases were too obvious in Belgium. He stated that academics, experts, and journalists often defended increases as difficult but inevitable and economically sensible, while political opponents were dismissed as enfant terrible. In Flanders, according to Vande Reyde, within less than two years, registration fees and costs for waste management had been increased, a road tax had been introduced, and various levies had risen, especially for entrepreneurs. The promised reduction of inheritance tax had also been scrapped. No party had announced these measures before the elections, he wrote. Vande Reyde added that, in the meantime, nothing was happening to reduce the state apparatus. According to him, cuts at the federal level were deemed impossible, while the removal of a small amount of Flemish subsidies was portrayed for weeks as an infringement of universal human rights. He also stated that the press regularly presented so-called spontaneous testimonials from people who almost always turned out to be PVDA activists, and that others viewed things differently. #Belastingverhogingen #Vlaanderen #Politiek (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that Vooruit wanted to significantly limit social media for young people because, according to the party, it was harmful and contained a lot of fake news. At the same time, the party would have, for the umpteenth time, set up accounts on TikTok and Instagram that pretended to be news accounts. Vande Reyde argued that they were managed by the party without this being mentioned, were targeted at young people, and were registered as news channels to circumvent advertising rules. He claimed that Vooruit was trying to reach a larger audience this way than with its own party accounts and pointed to brand manager Jordy. #socialmedia #fakenews #jongeren (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that governments transformed budget figures into a communication plan. According to him, the Flemish budget was not balanced: he pointed to a deficit of 1 billion euros for the coming year and deficits of 3 to 4 billion euros in previous years. He stated that the debt had tripled and would continue to rise in the coming years, but it was not yet known by how much. However, according to him, interest expenses would increase by 400 million euros, a rise of 23% in one year. Additionally, a subordinated loan of 1.65 billion euros had been pushed to 2035; the interest on that operation would amount to more than 1 billion euros. He contrasted those figures with the message that the accounts were "in order." #VlaamseBegroting #Financiën #Schuld (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that cities like Ghent and Mechelen, according to him, had been making excessive expenditures and accumulating debts for years, while funds from the municipal fund continued to come in from Flemish taxpayers. Now that the resources from that fund would rise slightly slower, the mayors of those cities and the VVSG had reacted strongly, according to him. He stated that they threatened to pass on the costs to residents and described reducing government spending as difficult in Flanders. #Gemeente #België #Overheid (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that a man who had failed at VOKA was now apparently suitable to become the highest official of Flanders. He reminded that N-VA made videos ten years ago against political appointments and stated that the party itself had now gone too far in this regard. He referred to N-VA as a "new CD&V." https://t.co/p3EbH7avN0 #VlaamsePolitiek #Ambtenarij #NVA (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that the public broadcaster had, in his view, provided misleading coverage in recent weeks regarding alleged severe cuts at VRT. According to him, unions had been given uninterrupted radio and airtime, while VRT NWS had not provided objective context and had widely disseminated their message. He described this as a situation at the level of a banana republic. Vande Reyde stated that the funding for VRT had increased in recent years, with millions more for, among other things, combating fake news and pension costs, and that only limited cuts had been made. Furthermore, he argued that the broadcaster could have generated more revenue from digital advertising. During the previous budget discussions, new concessions had been made regarding this, allowing VRT to show millions more in digital advertising, he wrote. According to him, parliament had not been informed about those agreements. He claimed that VRT had negotiated directly at the government table and secured a lot, only to then loudly protest and strike. According to him, the news editorial team had adopted the alarming stories from the unions. Vande Reyde wrote that trust in the media had thereby reached a historic low. #VRT #fakenews #mediawijsheid (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that Sven Pichal's testimony, in his opinion, offered no insight and was neither healing nor educational. He described it as a series of lukewarm excuses from someone who, according to him, knew well how the media worked, and noted that Pichal had then stated he was not looking for excuses. Vande Reyde called it a publicity stunt for and by a circle of acquaintances. #media #excuses #getuigenis (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that the discussion about which Belgian budget was the least bad, in his opinion, overlooked the seriousness of the situation. He described the Flemish accounts as very bad, the federal budget as hopeless, and that of the French Community, Wallonia, and Brussels as disastrous. According to Vande Reyde, no government had a balanced budget, and debts and interest burdens continued to rise catastrophically everywhere, at the expense of the prosperity of all Belgians. He suggested that a drastic reduction of the state apparatus was the only sustainable solution. At the same time, he wrote, most politicians and a large part of the media advocated for higher taxes, while even small savings were presented as an assault on humanity. #België #begroting #politiek (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde wrote that since taking office in the Flemish Parliament in 2019, he had tried to warn that billions in subsidies for a limited number of companies, in his opinion, yielded nothing and had no noticeable impact on growth or employment. He stated that countless small entrepreneurs were paying for that and that the money, according to him, could be used for a significant reduction in burdens for everyone. He asked how many failures were still needed before the Flemish government and organizations like VOKA would realize that. #VlaamseRegering #Ondernemers #Subsidies (translated)
Maurits Vande Reyde stated that the message that the Flemish government finances were in order was often taken over without checking the figures. He indicated that the budget deficit was 1 billion euros, the debt had tripled, and would continue to rise in the coming years. He also pointed to a subordinated loan of 1.65 billion euros that had been pushed to 2035; the interest costs of that operation would amount to more than 1 billion euros according to him. Additionally, Vande Reyde mentioned deficits of 3.6 billion euros in 2026, 4.5 billion euros in 2025, and 4 billion euros in 2024. He referred to Ben Weyts, who according to him had said that the people's money had been squandered. #VlaamseRekeningen #BegrotingTekort #Financiën (translated)
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