Future Belgian PM needs to find 28 billion euros during autumn holiday
Belgian pupils (and many of their parents) will enjoy a holiday next week. Bart De Wever, president of N-VA (Flemish nationalist) and destined to be the next prime minister, on the contrary, has the immensely difficult task of finding 28 billion euros worth of budget cuts, that can be approved by the five political parties of his future coalition.
After the 9 June federal elections, it was obvious to everyone that the next Belgian government should be one with MR (liberal) and Les Engagés (Christian-democrat) on the francophone side, and N-VA, CD&V (Christian-democrat) and Vooruit (socialist) on the Flemish side. Belgian king Philippe nominated Bart De Wever “formateur”.
Because of the local elections of 13 October, not much progress has been made in recent months. And the first meeting of party presidents after the elections, Thursday, wasn’t a success.
Although there’s a certain logic in the selection of the five parties, they range from the right side of the socio-economic spectrum to the left side. And this is a major problem because the next government's main challenge is the Belgian authorities' disastrous budget situation. As well the deficit as the debt is far beyond what the EU accepts and what is economically desirable.
How?
The five parties accept the task but disagree on how the problem should be solved. Bart De Wever presented them a plan that can be seen as right wing. After some initial remarks from the different party presidents, he added some elements to please the left side and also some elements to please the right side.
To summarize: the plan is to cut the budget deficit by 28 billion euros by 2029. But De Wever also wants some additional expenses (for example more money for the military), those are estimated at 11 billion euros. Which means the total amount of cuts needs to be 39 billion euros.
In his proposals, Bart De Wever makes several changes in the Belgian tax system. He cuts in unemployment benefits, health insurance and in pension rights. He wants a smaller public sector and reduces subsidies for migration and development assistance.
Trade unions
Such sensitive interventions should be negotiated in all discretion, but in recent weeks most proposals were leaked to the press, leading to protest from different interest groups, foremost the trade unions.
All of this makes it difficult for Vooruit, as the most left wing party. Party president Connor Rousseau says he’s willing to defend “difficult decisions”, but only if the burden is distributed fairly. On Thursday, he said he would only continue if first an agreement on budget can be reached, and this can only be done after a rewriting of the plan by De Wever.
Other parties say this is not necessary and a waste of time, but can only accept. So now, it’s first up to the formateur to write a new proposal in the coming days.After that, negotiations should switch to a higher gear, a much higher gear. To make sure the budget cuts can start asap, meaning already in 2025, legal decisions have to be taken this year. A government, with a detailed program, should be up and running by about the end of November.
Bart De Wever (l) and king Philippe | © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM