No budget by 1 January: De Wever calls it a failure and ties his premiership to a multi-year plan
Van Peel kept silent after her audience with the king, while the prime minister confirmed in the Chamber that the state will fall back on provisional twelfths; at 10.30 today he hears what King Philippe has decided.
N-VA leader Valerie Van Peel on Thursday was the last of the five majority party leaders to be received by King Philippe. According to the VRT NWS live blog, she arrived at the palace shortly after noon and left just before 1 pm without saying a word to the press. That concludes the round of consultations the king began after Prime Minister Bart De Wever offered his government's resignation on Monday.
In the Chamber that afternoon, De Wever acknowledged that the federal state will start 2027 under provisional twelfths, meaning that each month it may spend no more than one twelfth of the previous year's budget. According to L'Avenir, this will cover at least January and February, for the second year running. He called it an appalling failure for his government, VRT NWS reports; Business AM points out that a month earlier he had described that scenario as unacceptable. The prime minister will only stay on if the government makes a multi-year budget its priority, according to Belga as quoted by La DH. He warned that the interest bill of all levels of government combined, currently 16 billion euros a year, could exceed 50 billion by 2035.
According to L'Avenir, the dispute concerns the last 2 billion of the 10 billion euros the coalition is seeking by 2029: Vooruit considers the healthcare savings too harsh and wants an extra billion from the wealthiest, while MR wants a billion more in savings instead. The opposition seized on the debate: PS leader Paul Magnette called for a tax on energy companies' windfall profits, PVDA leader Raoul Hedebouw for a levy on the richest one percent. MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez said it is now up to the king. Jean Deboutte of the Federal Public Debt Agency told VRT NWS that the spread on Belgian debt over Germany has widened by around ten basis points.
De Wever returns to the palace at 10.30 today. Both VRT NWS and Business AM expect the king not to accept the resignation and to give the government another chance. According to L'Avenir, three options are doing the rounds: resuming the budget talks, renegotiating the coalition agreement, or a comprehensive plan modelled on what Jean-Luc Dehaene did in the 1990s to meet the Maastricht criteria.