A working lunch planned for Wednesday during which the man leading the federal government coalition talks Bart De Wever (Flemish nationalist) and the leaders of the other 4 parties that are involved in the talks would have sat down around the table together will not go ahead. VRT News has learned this from a reliable source.
During his week's holiday, Bart De Wever revised his so-called “super note”. He had hoped that the revised version would serve as the basis for negotiations between his Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the Francophone liberals (MR), the Flemish socialists (Vooruit) and the Flemish and Francophone Christian democrats (CD&V and Les Engagés).
The first draft of the “super note” that covers taxation, the labour market and pensions was deemed by some of the parties involved in the negotiations to be too one-sided in favour of the policies espoused by Mr De Wever’s N-VA. They submitted a series of amendments that Mr De Wever took into consideration when redrafting his note. Following bilateral talks earlier in the week, he had planned to hold a lunch with the leaders of all the parties involved in the negotiations today. However, the lunch will not go ahead.
The cancellation of the lunch raises the question of whether the changes made by Mr De Wever in the second draft of his “super note” suffice for it to form the basis for negotiations on the formation of a new federal government. VRT News sources report that some of the parties involved in the negotiations still feel that the “super note” is too one-sided.
Meanwhile, Bart De Wever still hopes that an agreement on the formation of a new federal government can be reached before 20 September, the day on which Belgium has to submit a budget to the European Commission. Mr De Wever is due to meet with King Filip at the Royal Palace next Monday to update Belgium’s Head of State on the progress of the coalition talks.