11 hours ago
King Philippe and Bart De Wever, Wednesday 26 June 2024. The President of N-VA to report to the King, Wednesday 10 July @BELGAIMAGE
The five parties that are expected to form a federal coalition have met since 15:00 on Tuesday at the headquarters of the N-VA around the preformant Bart De Wever. Listening to four of the five parties, it seems it’s time to get to the actual negotiations.
“The country needs a government as soon as possible. The cards are known now. The next stage must be to negotiate as soon as possible“, emphasized the representative of N-VA, Jan Jambon.
MR has not hidden it for two weeks: if it were up to him, the training negotiation would have already started. “I think we can start now. It’s not the first time we’ve seen each other, maybe it’s an opportunity to shift gears. For MR it was never a problem“, recalled the president, Georges-Louis Bouchez.
“There is a combination (of parties, editor’s note) that stands out quite clearly. There is a lot of convergence. Of course there are differences, but in every form of government there are differences“.”We are waiting for all five parties to agree to enter into negotiations. As for us, we are ready and willing to do so in order to avoid wasting more time and to get a government to Belgium as soon as possible.“, explained the president of Les Engagés, Maxime Prévot.
Bart De Wever in front of the king this Wednesday
“‘I hope that everyone will work constructively together and that there will then be a chance to reach a historically swift agreement“, noted the president of CD&V, Sammy Mahdi.”There is an opportunity, let’s use it. People expect us to work constructively together“.
However, the president of Vooruit, Melissa Depraetere, did not appear for the media when she arrived at the N-VA headquarters. The Flemish Socialists hold a political office around As the only members of a left-wing party, they have so far been the most reluctant to enter this coalition.
Tomorrow/Wednesday Mr. De Wever will report again to the King. There are no notes on the table at the moment, based on the comments. “Mr. De Wever works with discretion. As soon as a note is sent to someone, it has this very Belgian ability to circulate very quickly. In general, this hampers negotiations. It is above all in bilateral exchanges and for the first time today between five people that we will be able to pave the way to start negotiations“, Mr. Prévot indicated.
Several meetings took place last week with the five parties, but they were informational meetings on a few themes (economy, budget, defense, energy, healthcare). During the weekend and Monday, it previously held bilateral talks with the various parties.
