Formateur Bart De Wever invites Flemish liberals to the negotiating table

Parties already at the table are Mr De Wever’s own Flemish nationalist N-VA, Flemish Christian democrat CD&V, the Francophone liberals of MR and the Francophone centrists of Les Engagés.  Flemish socialist Vooruit that was at the table has let it be known it is not prepared to start formal talks on the basis of Mr De Wever’s proposals.

As the king's formateur, Mr De Wever has been given until Tuesday next week to revive the formation drive. It broke down last week because Vooruit rejected Mr De Wever’s super memorandum policy document and claimed not enough was being asked of Belgium’s wealthiest.

For days now, there has been speculation in political Belgium, known as the Wetstraat, where the seat of government is, about whether the formateur would look towards the Open VLD to help him out of the impasse. It now turns out this appears to be the case.

However, it’s thought the Flemish liberals won’t be asked to join the government proper.  Such an administration would only have a narrow one seat majority.  Instead, like in the 80s, parliament would be asked to give a new government special powers.  This the liberals could do from the opposition benches.  A time-limited government with special powers would be installed that would have the job of making the necessary reforms to avoid the budget derailing.

Christian democrat unenthusiam

However, one of the parties already at the negotiating table, Flemish Christian democrat CD&V, has let it be known it doesn’t believe talks with the Flemish liberals can lead to stable government because of the slender majority and that Belgium needs a government with a broad majority. CD&V leader Mahdi rejects special powers that would limit parliamentary scrutiny saying such scrutiny is crucial for his party.

Francophone liberals denounce procrastination

Meanwhile Francophone liberal leader Bouchez (MR) is fed up with waiting for socialist Vooruit and says there are not a dozen ways of exiting the crisis: either the Arizona parties continue with Vooruit or agreement is sought with the Flemish liberals. Mr Bouchez wants talks to start next week to ensure a budget can be approved by the end of the year.

Flemish liberals say 'yes'

In the course of Thursday afternoon Flemish liberal leader Eva De Bleeker announced on X that the Open VLD was accepting Mr De Wever's invite to talk about the federal government formation. Ms De Bleeker now intends to discuss her conversation with Mr De Wever with other leading Flemish liberals.