BRUSSELS — Prime Minister Bart De Wever told the Belgian parliament on Thursday that he had asked King Philippe to give the government until Christmas to hash out a budget deal.
Government parties have been locked in tense talks in an attempt to nail down the country’s budget and make good on the coalition’s promise to cut €10 billion in spending.
“Our situation can no longer tolerate procrastination,” De Wever told lawmakers after his conversation with the king. “We must not allow ourselves to be paralyzed. We must take decisive action and show that this country is resilient. That is why I asked: ‘Sire, give me 50 days.’”
But, De Wever warned, “I will say right away that this maximum period will not be extended.”
Amid disputes over plans to raise VAT and suspend automatic wage indexation — and against fierce protests over planned spending cuts — the Belgian government has missed several self-imposed deadlines to reach a budget deal. Without one, it will now be forced next year to rely on an emergency system allowing it to spend one-twelfth of the 2025 budget each month.
King Philippe, in a statement reported in local media, “urges all parties involved to take responsibility … so that the country can establish a clear budgetary path for the coming years as soon as possible.”
That’s important for Belgium’s citizens and finances, but also for its “credibility on the European and international level,” the king warned.
The budget turmoil comes with Belgium under pressure on the European level to endorse a plan to unlock €140 billion in frozen Russian assets — most of which are held by the Brussels-based financial firm Euroclear — to support Ukraine.
The European Commission is due to meet with the Belgian government on Friday in a bid to break the political deadlock.
Belgium’s ruling coalition is made up of five parties, including De Wever’s Flemish-nationalist New Flemish Alliance, the French-speaking center-right Reformist Movement (MR), the French-speaking centrists of Les Engagés, the Dutch-speaking centrist Christian Democrat and Flemish party, and the center-left Forward party.
The parties formed a government just nine months ago, and the negotiations to cement a budget for the government’s term are intertwined with their coalition deal.
De Wever nodded at the difficult talks in his statement to MPs. Clinching a budget deal is no easy task “in this complicated country,” he said, as it requires “five coalition parties from different language groups and different visions on mankind and society to reach an agreement.”
While the center-left Forward has been critical of the plan to skip an automatic wage indexation, MR party leader Georges-Louis Bouchez has vocally opposed the proposed VAT increase, arguing he joined the government with a promise not to increase taxes.
Other coalition members have reportedly grown frustrated with MR’s stance, but Bouchez dismissed the criticism after De Wever’s statement. “You can’t blame me for thinking that there are too many taxes in this country and that what we need to do is reduce the size of the state and cut spending,” he told reporters.
This story is being updated.
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