The Prime Minister of Belgium presents his resignation after "the failure in the negotiation of the budgets" and the King leaves it on hold until Friday

The Prime Minister of Belgium, Bart de Weber, presented his resignation to King Philip of Belgium this Monday, following the "failure of budget negotiations", which include a tough adjustment of 10 billion euros. The five parties that make up the so-called Arizona Executive were negotiating last morning, but the agreement has been impossible due to crossed vetoes of measures.

The King has put De Weber's resignation on hold, and will begin a round of contacts with the rest of the coalition partners to decide whether to accept it. And on Friday he will meet again with the prime minister to inform him of his decision.

"The King received Bart de Weber in audience at the Royal Palace. The prime minister presented his resignation after the failure of the budget negotiations. The King keeps his decision in suspense and will begin consultations tomorrow with the presidents of the majority parties," the Belgian royal house noted on its social networks.

"The king regrets the absence of an agreement to provide the country with a credible budget up to the current challenges. In a context marked by great geopolitical uncertainty and significant economic challenges, the country cannot afford a prolonged political crisis," the Belgian royal house said in a statement. For this reason, the King appeals to everyone's sense of responsibility and urges all parties involved to put the general interest and the spirit of compromise first," he added.

According to Le Soir, one of the measures that was debated is the increase of one percentage point in VAT, a proposal that was vetoed by the French-speaking center-right party Reformist Movement (MR). The Flemish center-left party Vooruit, for its part, rejected cuts in healthcare. The differences between these parties "seem irreconcilable."

And De Weber himself refused to leave the cut at 8,000 million, stating that if the adjustment of 10,000 million is not applied, the country would be at risk of suffering a downgrade in its credit rating. Likewise, the prime minister has not resorted to provisional monthly budget allocations, a tool that allows the accounts to be frozen the previous year and the next year to begin, in this case 2027, without budgets.

Bart de Weber came to power in February 2025 and belongs to the New Flemish Alliance, a conservative party that promotes the independence of Flanders from Belgium. That is, a politician who wants a separation of the country is the one who governs that same nation. Almost as if Carles Puigdemont governed Spain.