“Ideology should inspire, not paralyse,” Budget Minister Vincent Van Peteghem said on Thursday as he urged the Arizona coalition partners to reach an agreement on the 2026 budget and a multi-year trajectory.
A meeting of the restricted cabinet (kern) ended at around 6 p.m. on Wednesday without any agreement, contrary to prior expectations. Bilateral talks are scheduled for Friday, but the timing of the next plenary discussions remains uncertain.
Speaking in Parliament on Thursday, the Deputy Prime Minister acknowledged the challenges, describing the negotiations as a “complex exercise.” He emphasised that the nation’s prosperity depends on the decisions made in the coming days.
Where the multi-year trajectory is concerned, “the objective is clear: what Europe is asking for will be the minimum,” Van Peteghem said, without mentioning the €10 billion target set by the Prime Minister for the end of the legislative term. “How to achieve it is still under discussion,” he added. The stated objective is to “protect our welfare state.”
Opposition parties condemned the impasse. “Whoever rejects any agreement, saying ‘I don’t care as long as I keep 30% of the voters,' will be responsible for the crisis,” DéFI’s François De Smet commented, in an indirect reference to the Mouvement Réformateur (MR) party.
Raoul Hedebouw of the Belgian Workers Party (PTB) accused the government of adhering to a “no-alternative” narrative reminiscent of former British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s approach.
For her part, Ecolo-Groen’s Sarah Schlitz highlighted the “cry from the heart” sent out by the minister to the coalition partners, but added that “making tough decisions does not mean harming the population.”
