Federal formator Bart De Wever (N-VA) is back to meet King Philippe without an agreement on Tuesday, as hopes of forming a new Belgian Government before Christmas are rapidly dwindling.
De Wever, tasked with forming a new Federal Government, is expected back at the Royal Palace on Tuesday at 16:00 for an update on formation talks. In recent days, no major progress has been made for a new coalition agreement, several negotiators of the envisaged 'Arizona' coalition (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, CD&V, Vooruit) told Belga News Agency.
Last weekend, negotiations began on Sunday at 14:00 and lasted until 05:00 on Monday morning, but parties were still not able to find an agreement. De Wever was expected to organise a similar "marathon" negotiation session this Sunday, but it did not happen. One negotiator even called it "a lost weekend."
'Amazingly little' progress
While several negotiators were initially optimistic, hopes for a new government before Christmas are now very low. De Wever's 'Sinterklaas' video on Friday – in which he took a swipe at the French-speaking speakers by calling them "naughty children"– has likely not been conducive to a cooperative atmosphere.
While work did take place over the weekend, sources suggest that "amazingly, very little happened." On Saturday, several working groups met to discuss the topics of taxes, pensions and the labour market, but they received explicit instructions not to change anything substantive in the negotiating texts.
On Sunday, De Wever spoke to the four other party leaders one-on-one, but a meeting between all five leaders did not take place. On Monday, the federal working group working on security met again, but there was no further attempt to reach an agreement on the budget. Several negotiators told Belgian media they were "disappointed that Saturday, Sunday and Monday were not three days of intense talks."
When MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez arrived at the N-VA headquarters on Sunday morning for his bilateral meeting with De Wever, he did not mince words. "Some negotiators have relapsed into the previous government's habits. They seem to have forgotten that people did not vote for a re-run of that."
Bouchez stressed that finding an agreement would remain possible, "if some people stop coming up with new taxes." While he did not name names, MR has been very critical of what they call the "not very constructive attitude" of Flemish socialist Vooruit leader Conner Rousseau.
Rousseau, on the other hand, told VRT that "a lot of work" is still needed to make the agreement "fairer and more social" but added that "we are here to make that happen."
Looking for €20 billion
This means that, after six months, the negotiations are still stuck on the budget issue. To get the Federal Government's budget deficit below 3% again in the coming administration period, De Wever is looking for roughly €20 billion.
However, some new policies – such as extra defence spending and a possible tax cut – might also cost billions. The issue of tax cuts are proving particularly tricky: MR's Bouchez wants to cut taxes without implementing others to compensate. Vooruit, on the other hand, want new taxes for the highest earners to close some of the gaps in the budget.
The difficult negotiations are also affecting healthcare funding. Negotiators were given until Monday to agree on a budget for healthcare for 2025 by the outgoing Prime Minister Alexander De Croo, but missed the deadline.
De Croo was supposed to hold a meeting with his seven Deputy Prime Ministers about the issue on Monday, but he cancelled it as the 'Arizona' parties were not yet close to an agreement.
"As long as the budget discussions are ongoing in the negotiations, it is not up to the outgoing government to fix spending in 2025," the outgoing Prime Minister.