The parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region could be the first regional parliament in the country to announce a ruling majority coalition on Friday, following the elections in May.
With the informal discussions concluded, a self-proclaimed "progressive" majority coalition of greens, liberals and socialists appears poised to lead the new legislative term of the regional parliament.
The French-speaking greens at Écolo, the socialists at the Parti Socialist (PS) and the liberals at DéFi held informal meetings and discussions this week, according to BX1.
Party leaders are set to give the green light to the start of formal coalition negotiations on Friday, thus confirming the formation of the coalition.
After regional elections in May, the PS remained the parliament's largest party, picking up 17 seats in total. Écolo notched the biggest gains, nearly doubling their seat count from 8 in 2014 to 15 in the current legislature.
With ten seats each, liberals at DéFi tied with the extreme-left labour PTB party, but the latter does not appear to have been included in the informal talks, and a plan to team up with the PS in Wallonia's regional parliament appears to be on the rocks.
Party representatives are set to officially announce the coalition on Friday morning, with negotiations expected to kick-off next week.
Gabriela Galindo
The Brussels Times
