The 5 parties involved in the talks for the formation of a new federal government have still not reached an agreement on the socio-economic policy document drafted by the man leading the talks, the Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever.
The negotiators arrived at the Speaker of the Chamber of Representatives’ office, where the talks were held at around 7:30pm on Sunday evening. Ahead of Sunday evening’s talks, the Flemish socialist party Vooruit, that in recent days had been the most critical of all the 5 parties regarding the document drafted by Mr De Wever, made it clear that it believed that an agreement could be reached.
The bilateral talks between Mr De Wever and the Flemish socialist leader Conner Rousseau held earlier on Sunday appeared to have resolved a lot of issues. However, the concessions made to addresses Vooruit’s concerns were not well received by the Francophone liberal party MR. Just before midnight the 5-party talks were adjourned for a first time to allowed for bilateral talks between the Francophone socialists and Mr De Wever’s N-VA.
At around 4am on Monday morning the negotiators decided to call it a day. The Flemish nationalist party N-VA is refraining from comment for the time being. However, VRT News sources say that Mr De Wever has no intention of giving up just yet. He will meet with King Filip at 2pm this afternoon. He will update Belgium’s Head of State on the progress that has been made this far. The King will decide if Mr De Wever will continue as “Formateur” and if this is the case how long how much additional time he will be given.