Prime Minister Bart De Wever put a new formula to his coalition partners on Wednesday, 14 October: a budget 'emergency button' or 'safety net' built on a four billion euro effort in 2027, meant to reassure financial markets. The plan dropped a VAT reform that had split the majority, since the francophone liberals of the MR had treated it as a red line. Its content remained unclear, with the plan reportedly freezing indexation of pensions, civil servants' salaries, allowances, state operating budgets and tax scales, without a contribution from the 'broadest shoulders'. Vooruit and CD&V judged the exercise heavily unbalanced, and the Flemish socialists skipped a technical meeting on the proposal. On Saturday the government set the emergency idea aside for now and returned to a multi-year budget.
The government resumed its budget work on Saturday, 17 October, in a restricted committee that met at 10:30 at 16 rue de la Loi. De Wever and the vice prime ministers attended, and none of them commented on arrival. No consensus existed around the table for De Wever's latest idea, a stability law to be prepared in case provisional twelfths were used. The prime minister's cabinet then issued a statement on the outcome.
“After deliberation, the Kern decided not to continue this discussion at this stage in order to focus on reaching an agreement on a multi-year budget.”
The kern will meet again from Sunday, 18 October, to continue the talks.
Before the summer break the government agreed to find 10 billion euros more by 2029, to avoid a further worsening of public finances and the snowball effect of public debt. Talks broke down over the weekend of 10 and 11 October. On Sunday, 11 October, De Wever said the country would not start 2027 under provisional twelfths, citing the financial risks weighing on it. On Tuesday, 13 October, he could not deliver the traditional policy speech in the Chamber, the second time since taking office that he has missed it. Two days later he was absent from the Chamber because of a European summit.
N-VA vice prime minister Jan Jambon restated the ambition of finding 10 billion euros, insisting on the target.
“The objective remains unchanged.”
Within the Arizona coalition, the positions diverge on how the budget should be sequenced. CD&V stresses the importance of a multi-year agreement, while Vooruit has rejected the emergency formula as unbalanced. MR group leader Benoît Piedboeuf insisted that a 2027 budget be drawn up first. Axel Ronse, the group leader cited in the reports, said the emergency button would be activated only if the multi-year trajectory was not ready in time. The four billion euro effort for 2027 is therefore the stopgap under discussion, set against the 10 billion euro multi-year goal.
Data from the article text
Pollar is free and carries no ads in the text. Its members keep it going.
Support PollarGovernment · Brussels
The Arizona coalition resumed budget work in a restricted committee on Saturday, 17 October, after Prime Minister Bart De Wever's emergency-budget proposal drew objections from Vooruit and CD&V.
AI text based on reports by De Standaard, Le Soir, 7sur7 and other publishers. Published .