Eclectic mix of parties face self-imposed deadline to form Belgian government coalition

BRUSSELS (AP) — An eclectic mix of Belgian parties faced a self-imposed deadline Friday to agree on a government program and break a 7-month deadlock in coalition talks.

If the five parties agreed on a joint blueprint, a government was expected to be announced over the weekend.

Bart De Wever, from the Flemish nationalist N-VA party, is likely to become prime minister, succeeding Alexander De Croo who has remained in office as a caretaker since the June elections last year.

While coalition governments are always fraught with difficulties, in Belgium it is further burdened with finding a balance between Dutch-speaking Flanders, with 6.7 million people, francophone Wallonia, with 3.7 million, and multilingual Brussels, with 1.2 million.

All eyes were on the Vooruit socialist party from northern Flanders to see whether it would agree to join a program that would cut social benefits while largely leaving big business unaffected in an attempt to tackle the nation’s debt-burdened budget.

Overall, the nation has a debt totaling just over 100 % of GDP, putting it among the worst in the 27-nation European Union.

With Vooruit on board, the francophone MR free-market liberals, the centrist CD&V and Engages and the N-VA would complete the coalition, controlling 81 of 150 seats in the House for a comfortable majority.

The length of coalition talks highlighted however difficult it was to bridge fundamental gaps between the different parties.

At 236 days, it still falls far short of the Belgian record of 541 days in 2010-2011.