Bart De Wever confirms provisional budget rules as King weighs his resignation

Resignation over the budget

Belgian prime minister Bart De Wever submitted his resignation to King Philippe on Monday, 2 November, after the government failed to agree on a multi-year budget. He spoke in the Chamber on Thursday, 5 November, his first public comments since then, and used three of the five minutes allotted to him during oral questions. He told MPs that a kern meeting on Sunday, 1 November, had convinced him that no multi-year budget agreement would be reached. Accepting responsibility, he said the outcome was a failure for the government and that, as the head of the team, he had resigned. He also warned of the rapid rise in public debt and spoke of an imminent catastrophe.

“The government did not manage to finalise a multi-year budget. The government has seriously failed, and so I submitted my resignation.”

Provisional twelfths for the coming year

Without a budget agreement, Belgium will start the coming budget year under provisional twelfths, a procedure that keeps the previous year's credits without the planned consolidation. Under this regime the state may spend each month only one twelfth of the previous year's spending, and it has no full budget. A slim chance remained that the government could strike a deal in the coming hours and days to avoid the procedure, but De Wever ruled that out. He put it plainly.

“We are going to have to move to provisional twelfths.”

The arrangement will apply at least to the first months of the coming budget year, which De Wever described as the second year in a row on this footing. Earlier in the autumn he had wanted to avoid this regime at all costs, and his change of position was confirmed in the Chamber on Thursday.

Interest costs and the IMF estimate

De Wever pointed to a June estimate by the IMF that the government's efforts would bring a structural budget improvement of nearly 2% of GDP by the end of the decade, about 12 billion euros a year. He called those figures meaningful but said the economic situation was so unfavourable that the country was still far from its target. He referred to recent forecasts from the National Bank and the Federal Debt Agency on rising interest charges. This year, all authorities together will pay 16 billion euros in interest on the debt, and he warned that the bill could reach 50 billion euros by 2035 if circumstances stayed the same. He argued that the cost would not fall on future generations alone, since the bill was arriving much sooner and would reach everyone.

Interest payments, all authorities, this year (2026)16

IMF estimate of structural improvement per year by end of decade12

Interest payments, all authorities, this year (2026)

16 billion euros

IMF estimate of structural improvement per year by end of decade

12 billion euros

Data from the article text

Next steps and reactions

King Philippe spent the week receiving the presidents of the majority parties in the Arizona coalition to gauge their willingness to continue with the current team, and his consultations ended at midday on Thursday. He will meet De Wever again on Friday, 6 November, and must decide whether to accept the resignation or give the government more time. De Wever gave no indication of which way he expects this to go. He said the King would report back to him on Friday and that the coming days and weeks would show how things develop.

Opposition parties have stepped up criticism of the Arizona coalition, and the atmosphere inside it remains tense. Maxime Prévot called for a collective wake-up call and rejected the MR's reading of the crisis, which blames some parties for refusing to vote new savings measures. Georges-Louis Bouchez reacted for the first time to his own meeting with the King, in interviews with RTL Info and the RTBF. De Wever said he wanted to be prime minister only on one condition.

“I only want to be prime minister of a government that makes this mission a priority.”