The negotiators trying to form the Federal Government will next deal with the difficult issue of taxation, but not until Sunday. The talks will not take place on Saturday due to the New Year's reception of formator Bart De Wever's N-VA party.
De Wever received another – possibly final – extension of his assignment as formator from Belgium's King Philippe on Tuesday. He wants to conclude the negotiations between the Federal 'Arizona' Government parties (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, Vooruit and CD&V) by the end of January and therefore be ready with the coalition agreement.
However, this means that the five parties will have to hold serious discussions about the sensitive socio-economic topics that previously almost blew up the formation. While the talks on the labour market reform seemingly went smoothly last week, the subject of pensions turned out to be somewhat less easy to digest.
The theme has been on hold for some time, pending new proposals from De Wever. As a result, this topic will only be discussed after the national strike on Monday against the negotiators' pension plans.
New Year's message?
Taxation however has been even more difficult in the past. It has for months been the main bone of contention and things came to a head in the week before Christmas. The topic was therefore transferred to a technical working group with a political negotiator and a sherpa per party. The work there was completed on Friday afternoon.
Pensions will therefore be on the table of the central working group with the party leaders on Sunday and Monday. Les Engagés leader Maxime Prévot let slip on Thursday that the tax reform would amount to around €5 billion – only half of the €10 billion that was previously mentioned.
In anticipation of that discussion, they will consider the remaining sticking points from the other themes. No talks are planned on Saturday, because N-VA is holding its New Year's reception in Mechelen on the same day. Whether De Wever will have a message in store for his members about the formation of the Federal Government remains to be seen.
