Bart De Wever is still Belgium’s prime minister after King Philippe declined on Friday to accept the resignation he had tendered earlier in the week. In a statement, the Royal Palace said the monarch wanted the coalition’s budget negotiations to restart without delay, and that De Wever would report back to him on Monday, November 16.
The Flemish nationalist leader offered to step down on Monday after weeks of haggling over a 2027 spending plan produced no deal, describing the breakdown to lawmakers as a “terrible failure” of his government. Rather than accept immediately, the king put the request on hold and spent the following days consulting the heads of all five parties in the governing majority.
Those meetings appear to have given the palace enough reassurance. According to the statement, each party leader made a formal commitment that their party is ready to give ground, and all said they wanted a credible fiscal course covering the coming three years.
The dispute is about money and who pays. The government needs to find around ten billion euros by 2029 to rein in its deficit. On one side stand Vooruit’s Flemish Socialists, who argue that top incomes should carry a heavier load; on the other, the francophone Reformist Movement, which rules out both that idea and any VAT overhaul.
Without an agreement Belgium will again start a year on a provisional budget, under which the state may spend only one-twelfth of the previous year’s budget each month. De Wever had once ruled out such a stopgap but conceded this week that it is now practically unavoidable.
The royal refusal buys the prime minister ten days and some leverage over his quarrelling partners. Whether the pledged concessions are real will become clear by mid-November, when De Wever must tell the king whether his five-party coalition can still govern together.
