Belgium: Belgian Prime Minister De Wever remains in office despite the budget crisis

Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever remains in office after budget negotiations initially failed. Belgian King Philippe rejects the politician's offer to resign from the Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the palace announced.

At the beginning of the week, De Wever offered the royal head of state his resignation after the government's budget negotiations failed for the time being. The five parties, ranging from right to center-left, were unable to agree on tax reforms and spending cuts. King Philippe initially postponed a decision on his resignation and spoke to the leaders of the governing parties later in the week. This Friday he received De Wever again.

Following the audience, the palace further announced that the king's discussions with the party leaders had shown that all parties wanted to complete the budget negotiations as quickly as possible. The monarch also received formal assurances that the parties were prepared to make concessions in order to enable an agreement within the government.

Prime Minister De Wever is therefore now called upon to resume negotiations immediately. He is scheduled to report to the king again on November 16th.

Specifically, it is about the budget for 2027 and a savings package with which the center-right government wants to achieve savings of around ten billion euros by 2029. The pressure is growing, especially with a view to the budget for 2027.

King Philippe regretted that no agreement had been reached on a budget that would meet the country's current challenges, it was said on Monday from the palace in the Belgian capital. “Given major geopolitical uncertainties and significant economic challenges, the country cannot afford a protracted political crisis.” The king therefore appealed to the sense of responsibility of everyone involved.

Belgium is one of the most indebted countries in the European Union, behind Greece, Italy and France. The Federal Republic's western neighbor must save billions in order to comply with EU debt rules. At the same time, the country is obliged to drastically increase its defense spending in the coming years as part of NATO planning.

Protests against austerity measures have been going on for months in the country with almost twelve million inhabitants. Most recently, around 40,000 people took to the streets in the capital Brussels at the beginning of October. The right-wing politician De Wever is considered popular in Belgium; the Fleming and former mayor of the port city of Antwerp even has supporters in French-speaking Wallonia.

The five-party bourgeois-conservative government led by De Wever was sworn in in February 2025 - almost eight months after the election. In addition to De Wever's Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the so-called Arizona coalition also includes the liberal MR party and the center party Les Engagés from French-speaking Wallonia as well as the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V) and Social Democrats (Vooruit). The name Arizona comes from the colors of the parties, which match those of the US state's flag: orange (CD&V), blue (MR and Les Engagés), red (Vooruit) and yellow (N-VA).

In Belgium, forming a government is complicated and usually takes a long time. This is partly because most parties are running either in French-speaking Wallonia or in Dutch-speaking Flanders. The king plays a mediator role.