Belgium seeks to reboot coalition talks as it faces EU deadlines

Belgium’s King Philippe tried to plot a way out of the country’s political crisis on Friday after coalition talks collapsed over a budget row a day earlier.

He appointed Maxime Prévot, leader of the Walloon centrist Committed Ones party, as “mediator.” Prévot is tasked with bringing the positions of the five parties involved in the negotiations closer and was asked to report back on Sept. 2.

The five parties are the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA, right-wing); the Reformist Movement (MR, center-right); Forward (center-left); the Christian Democrat and Flemish Party (centrist); and Prévot’s own party.

Time is ticking for the country to form a government as it faces several EU deadlines: it must nominate an EU commissioner by the end of August and present a multi-annual plan to shrink its budget deficit to the European Commission by Sept. 20.

On Thursday, talks to form a center-right cabinet led by Flemish nationalist Bart De Wever, whose N-VA had won the June 9 election, collapsed.

Talks broke down over the introduction of a capital gains tax, according to local media reports.

Such a tax, meant to plug the country’s budget deficit (which was 4.4 percent of GDP in 2023), was a must for the center-left Forward but was unacceptable for the Walloon center-right liberals of MR.

Both parties reiterated their positions when the king consulted the party leaders of all five parties on Friday.

“An effort should be asked from everyone,” Forward’s leader Conner Rousseau said after his chat with the king, hinting at the need for greater effort from the wealthy — such as investors and large enterprises.

But Dennis Ducarme, an MR lawmaker, wrote on LinkedIn that his party didn’t win the elections to then “install billions of new taxes.”