Discussion after Maron leaves committee to pick up daughter

Brussels, (Brussels Morning)- A discussion arose in the Brussels parliament on Thursday after Minister Alain Maron (Ecolo) announced that he would have to leave the committee to pick up his child from the nursery. “Women have been working for decades and have never been approached with the same leniency as men.”

This week there was a commotion in the Flemish parliament after Liesbeth Homans (N-VA), as speaker of parliament, said that “children can stay with their daddy” if the childcare has to close. A variant of that debate also caused a stir in the Brussels parliament on Thursday.

At the start of the Commission for Health and Assistance to Persons, Brussels Minister Alain Maron (Ecolo) announced that speaking time would be limited because he had to be at the crèche at 6 pm to pick up his daughter. When it came to that, not everyone reacted positively.

“The minister could have found a solution. Women all over the world are finding solutions,” said Viviane Teitelbaum (MR) MEP. “I did react a bit angry,” she told BRUZZ on Friday. “After all, we were in an important debate whose speaking time is being limited because a man wants to pick up his child from daycare.”

“But women have been working for decades and have never been approached with the same leniency as men,” Teitelbaum continues. “Because it’s a man, it suddenly seems like softer conditions are being put on his professional life. If this incident shows what women go through day in and day out, then it’s good. But it’s not fair if we show this mildness – which we don’t show to women – we do show to men.” 

Parliament with young parents

Brussels MP Juan Benjumea-Moreno (Green) was stunned that a discussion about the incident had arisen. “Minister Maron had previously announced that he had to go to the crèche on time. The opposition thought that was outrageous and said that someone else should go get the child or that the minister should provide a solution. But is it a solution that a minister can never go get his child?”

“In addition, it is not the case that the minister is finished after fifteen minutes. We sat there for four hours and ten minutes for an intervention that was not that short. He has replied to everything. Ironically, some MPs had already left before him. “

“It is hallucinatory that not everyone realises that we are not in a parliament from 40 years ago with only old men whose wives were always at home. We have a parliament with many young parents and they also want a family life and are looking for that balance .”

Brussels opposition member Bianca Debaets (CD&V) also thinks the net is a good signal that this time it is a man who reports that he has to pick up his children. “It is a strong signal because in the past that task was often put in the shoes of women. I also think it is good that politicians themselves set an example. But another question is perhaps whether he could not have organised the committee differently and that could have started earlier.”

Other people are talking

On Twitter, MP Jan Busselen (PVDA) denied that the PVDA thought that someone else should go get that child. After all, according to Busselen, Maron’s departure was not about childcare.

“The context: an integrated health plan that the Brussels healthcare sector has been working on for three years, a 75-page vision text and an operational text of 25 pages need to be discussed quickly, as an opposition you have 10 minutes to react. not for childcare,” he wrote on Twitter.

N-VA MP Gilles Verstraeten says that it is “perfectly normal and defensible that something like this happens”, but adds an important ‘but’. “We’ve been waiting for this important health and wellness plan for three years, of course. We’ve had big questions about it for a long time and we’re always told to wait because ‘the plan is coming’. It’s bad timing to get that plan on.” at a time when the minister does not have the time to stay until the end of the debate. He might have had to make time for that, for example by providing a committee that started earlier in the day.”

Spokesperson for Alain Maron, Simon Vandamme, however, says that there is no reason to argue. “The debate was yesterday (Thursday, ed.). Minister Maron answered all questions. Moreover, Minister Elke Van den Brandt (Groen) and State Secretary Barbara Trachte (Ecolo) were still present after the minister’s departure for any answers.”