The man whose job it is to pave the way for negotiations that will lead to the formation of a new federal government Bart De Wever (Flemish nationalist) will bring together all the 5 parties with whom he hopes to be able to form a new coalition government later today. It will be the first time that Mr De Wever will have brought the parties together. Previously he had met with representatives of the Flemish socialists, his own Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the Flemish Christian democrats, the Francophone Christian democrats and the Francophone liberals individually.
Last Wednesday, after two weeks of consultative talks with the parties as “Informateur”, King Filip appointed Mr De Wever to the post of “Preformateur”. This gives him more leeway to organise multi-party meetings rather than just bi-lateral talks and to further pave the way for coalition talks proper to commerce. Bart De Wever will next report to the King on Wednesday week.
The news that the five parties will meet today appears in Monday morning’s edition of the daily ‘De Standaard’ and on the website of the daily ‘De Tijd’. The 5 parties will be given a briefing on the economy and the budget at the National Bank of Belgium. On Tuesday they will visit military chiefs of staff to be briefed on the challenges faced by Belgium’s armed forces. Later on Tuesday the party leaders will be briefed about the country nuclear power stations by the Federal Nuclear Control Agency.
Mr De Wever has already held talks with the various party leaders individually. However, it is only now that they all are meeting together in person. The parties are not yet ready to start coalition negotiations proper. Mr De Wever will report to the King again on Wednesday 10 July.