400 days later: Brussels struggles to start talks on government deadlock

Discussions to form a Brussels regional government could resume thanks to a proposal put forward by the francophone liberal party MR, which has offered to forego one of its governmental posts to break the 400-day political deadlock.

The six parties – MR, PS, and Les Engagés on the French side; Open VLD, Groen and Vooruit on the Flemish – will now work towards a coalition agreement by September.

Talks had been at a standstill as the francophone Socialist Party (PS) refused to govern with Flemish nationalists N-VA – Prime Minister Bart de Wever's party. But Flemish liberals Open VLD insisted that N-VA should be included in a government coalition.

Belgian politics is divided between French and Dutch -speaking language communities. But the federal system is particularly complicated in the Brussels region, where political groups from both sides are needed for a majority in the regional government.

With an unusually awkward distribution of votes in the 2024 elections, it is mathematically difficult to form a majority without PS or N-VA. But these parties are almost diametrically opposed and PS has been intransigent in its resistance to the Flemish nationalists.

On Friday 11 July, MR President Georges-Louis Bouchez announced that discussions between PS and his party had resumed to find a “solution” by Belgium’s national day on 21 July.

Previous efforts to get parties to negotiate had blown up, with long-standing feuds preventing constructive dialogue. But with the region's debt swelling to €15 billion, at the same time its credit rating has been downgraded, the financial situation is clearly unsustainable.

On Sunday, MR and N-VA reached an agreement: N-VA will not take a seat in the coalition. To appease them, MR would sacrifice a state secretary position in the future government, which would be replaced by a figure from civil society not affiliated with any party.

This person is expected to be a French-speaker “compatible” with N-VA positions, Belga News Agency writes, through which the party will have some indirect influence.

But despite initial optimism that talks could resume, progress was again held up on Monday as N-VA sent a representative to the negotiations. The talks were promptly cancelled, Bruzz reported.

Orlando Whitehead contributed reporting.

(vib, ow)