The co-leaders of the Flemish green party Groen, Jeremie Vaneeckhout and Nadja Naji, went to the Royal Palace in Brussels for an audience with King Filip on Wednesday morning. They entered the palace just before 9:30 and didn’t stay for very long.
Flemish Green co-leaders: “We are not going to prop up a right-wing government"
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An interview given as they left the palace left little to the imagination. The party co-leaders said that they had a “good and ‘serious” conversation with the King. Nadja Naji added that “For us it is clear: we are preparing for opposition, both at a Flemish and a federal level. We are not going to prop up a right-wing government”.
The possibility that the Flemish socialists will enter both coalitions makes little difference for the co-leaders of Groen. Jeremie Vaneeckhout made a culinary analogy “By diluting wine with water, you just end up with bad wine”.
Brussels is the exception
In Brussels it is a Flemish green that is in charge of trying to form the Dutch-speaking half of what will be the new regional government coalition. The outgoing regional minister Elke Van den Brandt has started consultative talks to this end today. In Brussels the Flemish greens are the largest Flemish party. The Francophone green party Ecolo has ruled out participation in the next regional government coalition in Brussels.
Later today, the leaders of Ecolo and the Francophone federalist party DéFi will have audiences with King Filip. After having completed his round of talks with the leaders of the various parties that are represented in the Federal Parliament, the King is expected to appoint a so-called “Informateur” whose job it will be to pave the way for talks on the formation of a new federal government.