The 2024-2028 management agreement between the Brussels public transport company MIVB/STIB and the Brussels Region will not happen now. The French-speaking PS socialists are reversing their course and opposing the indexation of preferential fares. However, the Brussels government, of which the PS is also part, approved it last week.

A new attempt will be made this week. Otherwise, the current agreement will remain in force for an additional year.

No 7% indexation, says PS

The new management agreement was scheduled to be signed Monday morning. A press conference was also planned but was called off at the last minute. After all, at the MIVB/STIB board meeting, the PS reconsidered its decision on the 7% indexation of preferential rates, especially for young people between 18 and 24 and those over 65, which costs them only 12 euros a year (or 12,84 euros if you add indexing).

However, in the Brussels government, the party had agreed that after years of unchanged fares, MIVB/STIB could index the fares in 2024, something that was, therefore, also written into the 2024-2029 Management Contract between the transport company and the Brussels Region.

The file now ends up back on the agenda of the Brussels government, which will revisit the indexation of fares on Thursday.

Internal political struggles

According to the newspapers De Standaard and La Libre Belgique, the cancellation is due to internal political struggles within the PS in Brussels. It is divided into two camps: one led by Ahmed Laaouej, head of the Brussels PS, and the former clan Onkelinx, with central Brussels parliamentary speaker Rachid Madrane.

It was announced Saturday that Laaouej will draw the PS list in Brussels in the June 2024 elections. As a result, he will also become a ministerial candidate for the Brussels Region. Outgoing Minister-President Rudi Vervoort is in third place. Still, Madrane, who was in fifth place, angrily announced that he would no longer be a candidate out of dissatisfaction with how the list had come about.

Bad polls

Besides the fact that Laaouej is now the new strongman at the expense of Vervoort, in the background, there is also the fact that the polls are bad for the PS, writes BRUZZ. According to the latest polls, the PS is losing ground in Brussels, down to 15,7% (-2,4%), making them only the fourth largest party in Brussels, while the far-left PVDA/PTV, with 19,3%, would become the largest party for the first time.

And precisely, the PVDA/PTB has consistently opposed an indexation of MIVB/STIB fares.

So, it is not surprising that Lotfi Mostefa (PS), vice chairman of the MIVB/STIB board of directors, informed the board on Monday that the PS could not agree to the indexation of preferential fares. Mostefa has always strongly opposed fare increases at the MIVB/STIB. He belongs to the camp of Laaouej, who no longer tolerates Vervoort’s having the upper hand in these negotiations.