The French-speaking green party Ecolo is standing firm in its decision to not play a role in the formation of the Brussels government.
This follows recent calls from MR and Les Engagés to get the francophone greens on board as an alternative partner to replace the Socialist Party (PS), which has refused to engage in talks so long as the right-wing N-VA is part of the Dutch-speaking coalition.
But Ecolo has no interest in adding its seven seats to make a majority, Bruzz reports. This is despite the best efforts of David Leisterh (MR), formateur on the French-speaking electoral college, and Christophe De Beukelaer (Les Engagés) who together proposed several concessions to win over Ecolo.
While Brussels' frontrunner for the party, Zakia Khattabi, and the bulk of the party leadership continued to hold the opposition line, Ecolo did meet on Tuesday evening to discuss the party's position. But the note failed to convince the party.
"The conditions for respect and trust, necessary for negotiations, are not there," a party leader told Bruzz. "Ecolo is therefore sticking to its line, which is very clear and has been expressed before." Another source said the party felt they were being trapped. But some members of the party did feel that Ecolo might need to be willing to step into government if the deadlock continues.
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Leisterh is now in a difficult position, unable to circumvent the problematic PS. Despite DéFI not yet ruling out its participation, Ecolo is mathematically indispensable when trying to form a majority without PS.
Leisterh has no option but to go back to Ahmed Laaouej, PS party leader for Brussels. But this would require addressing the issue of N-VA in the Dutch electoral college.
"Leisterh must face the facts: there is no majority in the Brussels parliament to support a government with the N-VA," a PS source said.
