Georges-Louis Bouchez has blamed divisions between the left and right for the slow pace of Federal Government formation talks.
Bouchez is the leader of the liberal French-speaking party Mouvement Réformateur (MR), one of five partners of the prospective government coalition 'Arizona' (liberals MR, centrists Les Engagés, right-wing N-VA, Christian Democrats CD&V, socialists Vooruit). The 9 June elections took place 186 days ago, but no agreement has been reached.
Speaking to students at KU Leuven on Friday, Bouchez put the slow pace down to divisions between the left and the right. The Flemish socialist party Vooruit is the only Arizona partner to espouse a left-wing ideology.
"In both the Brussels and federal formation talks, there is a left-wing party with which it is difficult to negotiate, for example, on fiscal matters," he said. "N-VA and MR agree 99% of the time."
His lecture was followed by questions from the audience, which largely focused on political parties and the power of their leaders. The liberal politician defended the existence of parties, which he believes are essential for ensuring democracy and democratic debate, "just as schools are necessary for education."
'No fascists on our campus'
The event at KU Leuven went ahead without interruptions, but similar lectures Bouchez has given in the past have been disrupted. A lecture at the University of Ghent (UGent) was interrupted by pro-Palestine activists in October.
On Monday, students at the Université Libre de Bruxelles (ULB) protested Bouchez's participation in a university panel. They called for "no fascists on our campus", in reference to the politician's inflammatory comments about the Israeli pager attack on Lebanese militia and armed group Hezbollah in September.
The explosions killed 12 people including two children and injured thousands more. At the time, Bouchez said the strategy was a "stroke of genius". He has criticised this week's ULB protest as an attack on free speech.
