The Francophone centrist Yvan Verougstraete has been given the task of trying to get the formation of a new regional government back on track. More than 14 months after the regional, federal and European elections, Brussels is still without a new regional government. Mr Verougstraete has been appointed by his own party Les Engagés, the Flemish green party Groen, the Flemish socialist party Vooruit and the Flemish Christian democrat party CD&V. Mr Verougstraete announced his appointment on Wednesday.
Despite repeated attempts to try and form a new regional coalition government, Brussels is still without a new regional government more than 14 months since last year’s elections. Talks have stalled due to the Francophone Socialist Party's (PS) refusal to form a government with the Flemish nationalist N-VA. Meanwhile the Flemish liberals insist that N-VA is taken on bord.
Speaking on Wednesday evening Mr Verougstraete said “Brussels, in all its diversity and dynamism, is crucial for our country. We cannot allow it to stagnate or be paralysed by political deadlock”.
“It is our duty to give people in Brussels what they deserve: an ambitious vision, strong leadership and solutions to everyday challenges.”
Positive project
It will be the Francophone centrist leader’s task is to bring together as many parties as possible willing to discuss a “positive project” for the Brussels-Capital Region. Next Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, he will hold bilateral talks with most of the parties that are represented in the regional parliament. The aim is to be able to draft a balanced framework document quickly and identify which parties are ready to open formal negotiations.
Mr Verougstraete’s approach is to first identify areas where there is common ground and then build a majority around it. If initially a majority cannot be found in both language groups, the 4 parties that have appointed Mr Verougstaete intend to continue developing the programme while maintaining open lines of communication with parties not currently involved. The highly fragmented political landscape in Brussels, compounded by the emergence of parties such as Team Ahidar and the far-left PTB-PVDA, make forging a workable coalition more difficult than it has been in the past.
Power-sharing
In the Brussels-Capital Region the two languages communities (Francophone and Dutch-speaking) must secure a majority within their respective language groups before coming together to form a regional government.
The regional government consists of a First Minister, four ministers (two per language group) and three secretaries of state, one of whom must be Dutch-speaking and aligned with ministers of the same linguistic group.