Bart De Wever appointed preformateur of federal government
King Philippe has appointed N-VA leader Bart De Wever as the preformateur of the next federal government.
At 10.00 on Wednesday, De Wever was received by King Philippe at the Royal Palace in Brussels to report on his mission to seek out potential coalitions for Belgium's next federal government.
After a meeting lasting more than an hour, they concluded that the formation process was ready to enter a new phase. De Wever is now preformateur: while the role is still largely informational, the designation means that De Wever has made tangible progress. He will also be able to meet with several parties at the same time, rather than meeting them one by one.
Not formateur yet
The French-language newspaper Le Soir suggested on Tuesday that De Wever might skip the step of preformateur, and immediately become a formateur, meaning he would start looking for a coalition agreement. Other parties soon made it clear that this step would come too soon for them.
"After barely two hours of talks with the informateur, we have too little information to move to the next phase," said socialist party Vooruit. "We remain open and constructive for cooperation and ask for the information phase to continue."
On Wednesday, Les Engagés leader Maxime Prévot said he did not want to take the next step towards forming the next federal government yet.
"We have not yet made sufficient progress in the convergence between the parties (...) and we do not yet have a commitment from Vooruit" to join the coalition, Prévot told the news channel LN24. "The stars are not yet aligned."
De Wever will report to King Philippe on his progress on 10 July.
© BELGA PHOTO LAURIE DIEFFEMBACQ
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