Belgium’s ruling coalition is made up of five parties, including De Wever’s Flemish-nationalist New Flemish Alliance, the French-speaking center-right Reformist Movement (MR), the French-speaking centrists of Les Engagés, the Dutch-speaking centrist Christian Democrat and Flemish party, and the center-left Forward party.
The parties formed a government just nine months ago, and the negotiations to cement a budget for the government’s term are intertwined with their coalition deal.
De Wever nodded at the difficult talks in his statement to MPs. Clinching a budget deal is no easy task “in this complicated country,” he said, as it requires “five coalition parties from different language groups and different visions on mankind and society to reach an agreement.”
While the center-left Forward has been critical of the plan to skip an automatic wage indexation, MR party leader Georges-Louis Bouchez has vocally opposed the proposed VAT increase, arguing he joined the government with a promise not to increase taxes.
Other coalition members have reportedly grown frustrated with MR’s stance, but Bouchez dismissed the criticism after De Wever’s statement. “You can’t blame me for thinking that there are too many taxes in this country and that what we need to do is reduce the size of the state and cut spending,” he told reporters.
This story is being updated.