The woman leading the talks among the Dutch-speaking parties for the formation of a new regional government in the Brussels-Capital Region Elke Van den Brandt (Flemish green) has presented the three other parties with whom she hopes a coalition can be formed with a memorandum. The memorandum will serve as a starting point for negotiations on the formation of the Dutch-speaking half of the new regional government.
After months of total impasse, a breakthrough came last week when the Flemish liberals said that they were prepared to enter into a coalition without being given a ministerial post. Instead, they would be content with the post of “Government Commissioner” with responsibility for the budget. Previously the Christian democrats rejected the offer of a post as “Government Commissioner” in exchange for them joining the regional government. The result of the regional election was such that unless a coalition could be formed consisting of the Flemish Greens and the former socialist MP Fouad Ahidar’s Team Fouad Ahidar, the only way to obtain a majority among the 17 Dutch-speaking regional MPs would be with a 4-party coalition.
The Flemish liberal says that the Government Commissioner should fall under the auspices of the new First Minister, a Francophone liberal, as the First Minister will be responsible for policy on the region’s budget.
Given the poor state of the Brussels-Capital Region's budget, the Flemish liberals believe that it should be up to the First Minister to take charge of budget policy. However, the question remains whether the Francophone coalition partners want to go down this this path.
The parties are remaining discrete about the contents of the memorandum. However, it reportedly contains a few proposals that should appeal to the Flemish nationalists of N-VA.