Een staatshervorming voor betere gezondheidszorg / Une réforme de l’Etat pour de meilleurs soins de santé

Thursday 12 November from 12 to 1.30 pm
22nd public event of the Re-Bel initiative
Zoom Webinar

Should our federal institutions be modified in order to better address the challenges of health in the 21st century? If so, how?

The webinar is coordinated by Erik SCHOKKAERT (KU Leuven and Re-Bel).

It will be conducted in Dutch and French and chaired by Béatrice DELVAUX (Le Soir) and Karel VERHOEVEN (De Standaard).

The introduction by Jan DE MAESENEER, professor emeritus, Department of Public Health and Primary Care, WHO Collaborating Centre on Family Medicine and Primary Health Care, UGent, will be followed by comments by 
Margot CLOET (CEO of Zorgnet-Icuro, a large network of Flemish organizations active in health care and other forms of care, formerly chief of cabinet of the Flemish minister for welfare and public health),
Jean HERMESSE (economist, secretary general of the Christian Mutualities from 2007 to 2020),
Jean MACQ (professor at UCLouvan’s Faculty of public health and the Institute Medecine & Society,
and by an online Q&A session.

The webinar will close with the usual wise words by Paul DE GRAUWE (LSE and Re-Bel).

An opinion piece on this subject co-signed by the new federal minister of social affairs and health Frank Vandenbroucke, his chief of cabinet Ri De Ridder and two of our speakers, Jan De Maeseneer and Jean Hermesse, was published on 31 July 2020 in De Standaard and Le Soir. A longer version of this piece that can serve as background for our webinar can be downloaded from our site in French and in Dutch. Another opinion piece in which members of Re-Bel outline the main challenges is due to be published shortly before the webinar in De Standaard and Le Soir.

 A Zoom link will be sent in due course to all those registered.

Minority government: why and why not?

Thursday 17 September from 8pm to 9.15 pm
21st public event of the Re-Bel initiative
Zoom Webinar

It is our pleasure to confirm Re-Bel’s first online public debate. It will be held on Thursday 17 September from 8pm to 9.15 pm, using Zoom, and address the question “Minority Government: why and why not ?”. Since December 2018, Belgium has been living under a minority government.

Since May 2019, it is in search of a party coalition that would be willing to form a majority government. Unsuccessfully so far. No wonder therefore that the idea of settling for a minority government has been voiced repeatedly and taken more seriously than ever before — the more so as several other democracies seem to get away with it without major upheaval. How sensible is the idea of a minority government in general, and in particular in the Belgian context? Even if a majority government ends up being formed this time, this question will keep surfacing in the future.

Programme

Re-Bel’s debate will be introduced by Bonnie FIELD, professor of political science at Bentley University (Massachussetts), author of Why Minority Governments Work (Palgrave Macmillan, 2016) and Lucien RIGAUX, assistant at the Law Faculty of the ULB, author of “Les gouvernements minoritaires en Belgique” (Revue belge de droit constitutionnel, 2019). These short introductions will be followed by a discussion with the online audience moderated by Kris DESCHOUWER, professor of political science at the VUB, chair of the European Consortium for Political Research and member of Re-Bel’s core group.

To register, please fill in the form below. A Zoom link will be sent to all those registered shortly before the event.