‘There is no money’: PM rules out general support as energy costs rise
Prime minister Bart De Wever is opposed to general support measures aimed at curbing rising energy prices, he repeated on Wednesday during the House Committee on Home Affairs. However, he has left the door open slightly to a windfall tax.
When asked by journalists if there would be widespread support measures for energy prices, such as the reverse excise mechanism on fuel called for by MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez, De Wever said: “There is no money,” he said. In response to questions from MPs Raoul Hedebouw (PVDA) and Eric Thiébaut (PS), he gave a more detailed response.
A broad support package would be “adding fuel to the fire”, he said. “That cost us a lot of money in the recent past, while it was inefficient and poorly targeted. People seem to think there is still budgetary scope for that sort of support, but that is not the case.”
Under Alexander De Croo, the previous government responded to rising energy prices with a mix of tax reductions, direct support to households and measures aimed at the energy market itself. The measures cost 6.2 billion euros in 2022, figures from the Court of Audit show.
"People seem to think there is still budgetary scope for that sort of support, but that is not the case"
The current government does want to do something for two specific groups, it decided before the Easter break: vulnerable households who heat their homes using fossil fuels, and people who rely solely on their own cars to travel to work.
On Wednesday, a working group will meet to discuss possible measures. The cabinets will also receive a presentation from the monitoring committee and the Planning Bureau on the budgetary impact of the crisis, “and we can assume that this will be particularly negative”, De Wever said.
The Council of Ministers will consider on Friday what support measures can be taken. De Wever is also leaving the door open to a tax on the excess profits of companies profiting from the crisis, as advocated by Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau. The toolbox the European Commission is working on will “almost certainly” include such a fiscal instrument, and “the government can then discuss it”, he said.
Bouchez has already said on several occasions that he will not accept a single new tax for the remainder of the legislative term. He threatened again on Tuesday to block all government work if no support measures are decided on Friday.
MR's Georges-Louis Bouchez and prime minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) during a plenary session of the Chamber at the Federal Parliament in Brussels, 2 April 2026 © BELGA PHOTO JONAS ROOSENS
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