Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever (N-VA) this morning offered King Filip his resignation as formateur but the king decided first to consider this request. He has given Mr De Wever another week, till 12 November, to breathe new life into attempts to form the next Belgian federal government. Efforts to forge an agreement between the Flemish nationalists, Christian democrats and socialists and the Francophone liberals and centrists have become extremely difficult after Flemish socialist leader Conner Rousseau said he was unwilling to start formal talks on the basis of the 'super memorandum' policy document put forward by the formateur.
Bart De Wever offered his resignation as formateur to King Filip this morning the royal palace confirmed, but the king has not accepted it, but given the formateur another week to put his efforts back on track.
Mr De Wever had been trying to cobble together a new Belgian government almost without interruption since the general election five months ago, first as informateur, then as formateur. In recent weeks, he has so far failed to get Flemish nationalist N-VA, Flemish Christian democrat CD&V, Flemish socialist Vooruit, Francophone liberal MR and Francophone centrist Les Engagés to agree on the major reforms that the future federal government should implement.
Parties happy to pursue present project
The parties involved in the talks met this morning.
‘There was no agreement at the meeting of the five party leaders on how exactly to proceed and too little time to think about it,’ political journalist Bart Verhulst explains.
The king's decision gives the Arizona parties an extra week to come closer together and possibly, after all, continue government formation negotiations. ‘All five leaders are still banking on the present formula,’ colleague Verhulst says. ‘None of the parties say they no longer want to continue or want to start working on a different project, not even socialist Vooruit.’