The five parties hoping to form the next Belgian government negotiated well into the night yesterday. The talks involving the leaders of Flemish nationalist N-VA, Christian democrat CD&V and socialist Vooruit and Francophone liberal MR and centrist Les Engagés broke up after a 15-hour marathon session without agreement. On the agenda were tax reforms and the budget.
No further negotiations are planned for today. Only on Tuesday at 10 a.m. will the negotiators meet again.
CD&V leader Sammy Mahdi was relatively positive leaving after a night of negotiations on the budget and tax reform. ‘We were able to talk matters through and negotiate,’ he wrote on Instagram. ‘Going home wacked. Monday is the first day off in a long time. We will return to the negotiating table.’
Another negotiator also said a lot of hard work had been accomplished overnight. ‘Now looking at the measures to see how we can find agreement. It was the first time everyone was back around the table negotiating these issues. It goes without saying that there is a lot of work to be done.’
Another source speaks of the ‘advanced stage’ in the negotiations.
‘Federal government possibly only shortly before Christmas’
Speaking at a news conference on Monday morning MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez insisted a lot of work still needed to be done: ‘The socio-economic memorandum contains almost as many pages as all the other memoranda put together. Given the task ahead, we will not have a federal government before mid-December at the earliest. It will probably be just before Christmas.’
According to Bouchez, there is no agreement yet on the full budgetary framework for the next five years. He concedes there is considerable urgency. ‘This government must be operational before 2025 if the reforms are to have their full effect. If that fails to happen, you risk losing political momentum, but most of all it means taking 20 per cent off your capacity to reform.’
The budget may only be presented to parliament in early 2025. ‘But that does not mean it is not possible to vote certain reforms this year so that they take full effect in 2025. That is why the deadline of the end of the year remains so important.’