Belgium woke up on Wednesday with the prospect of finally seeing the formation of a majority government, which the country has been deprived of for 21 months, and knowing the name of its new prime minister during the day.
A draft government agreement was concluded at dawn between the seven parties engaged for a week in a marathon negotiation, a source close to the discussions told AFP, confirming information from the Belgian media.
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This new coalition marks the return to power of environmentalists, while the Flemish nationalists of the N-VA, the leading party in Flanders, associated in power between 2014 and 2018, are relegated to the opposition.
The new government platform brings together seven parties, the six of the socialist, liberal and environmental families (each time a French-speaking group and its Dutch-speaking counterpart), to which is added the CD&V, the party of the Flemish Christian Democrats.
Wednesday morning, "
the last details (of the agreement) were being re-read,
" said the source close to the negotiations, and discussions continued "
on the casting
".
Flemish liberal Alexander De Croo, 44, finance minister in the outgoing government, is the favorite to replace French-speaking Sophie Wilmès as Prime Minister.
According to the media, in addition to the holder of this post, the seven parties must agree on the names of the 14 members of the government, which is made up of as many women as men and also linguistically equal.
After several weeks spent reconciling their positions, the party presidents have been negotiating a government program since last Thursday, budgetary questions constituting one of the most bitter aspects of the discussions against the backdrop of the economic crisis linked to the coronavirus pandemic.
They were seated around the table after the failure in mid-August of a coalition attempt associating the N-VA and the French-speaking Socialist Party (PS) of Paul Magnette, the leading political force in the south of the country.
Environmentalists firmly refused to rule with Flemish nationalists.
The draft agreement must still be validated by each of the seven parties, a priori by Thursday, the date on which the House of Representatives is called to sit to see the new executive presented.
Customary to political instability, Belgium had been governed by a minority coalition since December 2018, when the N-VA had abruptly left the team led by the French-speaking liberal Charles Michel.
The legislative elections of May 26, 2019, marked by a progression of extremes and environmentalists, accentuated the fragmentation of the political landscape and made the constitution of a majority around the traditional parties even more complex.
The current government, led by French-speaking Liberal Sophie Wilmès for eleven months, relied on a small minority of seats in the House (38 out of 150).
