Five parties, no budget: Prime Minister places his government's fate in King Philippe's hands

The federal inner cabinet broke up overnight from Sunday to Monday without a budget agreement. The senior ministers met at around 9 pm on Sunday with Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA), who tabled a new budget table, and left at around 1 am, La Libre reports. Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval (MR) was the first to announce that there was no deal. According to a source who spoke to the Belga news agency, MR, Vooruit and Les Engagés each held their ground; there was no real confrontation, but De Wever concluded that a compromise was out of reach. VRT NWS reported that the prime minister would go to the King at 9.30 am on Monday to offer his government's resignation. According to Belga, he arrived at the palace a few minutes early. At the time this edition was compiled, it was not known what King Philippe would do with the resignation.

At the heart of the dispute is who makes the biggest effort. According to VRT NWS, Vooruit, CD&V and Les Engagés want the strongest shoulders to contribute more, while N-VA and MR are opposed. Clarinval accused Vooruit of sticking to a line of more taxes and fewer savings and said there were too many taxes, referring to more than 3 billion euros that were reportedly on the table. Other parties dispute that figure and speak of contributions from the broadest shoulders; until now the talks had concerned around 2 billion euros in extra revenue, La Libre writes. Les Engagés said on Sunday afternoon that 1 billion euros from the strongest shoulders is a minimum for them and that the 1.5 billion Vooruit is asking for would be welcome. Nor was there agreement on capping the growth norm in health care, which Vooruit and Les Engagés oppose. Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prévot (Les Engagés) said on leaving that listing all the sticking points would take far too long.

The government is looking for around 10 billion euros by 2029. According to VRT NWS, a deal is needed by Tuesday noon at the latest to prevent the federal state from having to operate next year on provisional twelfths, an emergency budget De Wever has always ruled out. The weekend was devoted to bilateral talks: on Saturday the prime minister saw deputy prime ministers Vincent Van Peteghem (CD&V) and Prévot, and on Sunday Clarinval and Frank Vandenbroucke (Vooruit). Political scientist Bram Bouteca told VRT NWS on Sunday that he was less confident of a deal than a few weeks ago. In his view, Vooruit needs a visible victory and the party is targeting management companies among other things, a sensitive point for N-VA.

The King can accept the resignation, in which case the government falls, or keep it under consideration and give the parties more time. The latter happened last year: De Wever was then given fifty extra days and a deal worth 9.2 billion euros followed on 24 November 2025, VRT NWS recalls. According to the public broadcaster, King Philippe interrupted his holiday, and the meeting with the prime minister was not in his diary. VRT journalist Bart Verhulst considers a new inner cabinet meeting in the early afternoon possible, for a final attempt. Political commentator Ivan De Vadder points out that an accepted resignation does not automatically lead to elections: in principle a new government could also be formed on the basis of the current election results.