MR leader Georges-Louis Bouchez will accompany Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval to talks with Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Monday afternoon as budget negotiations resume. Bouchez announced the move in a Facebook post, saying it reflected the uncertainty over the framework of the talks.
After the King refused De Wever’s resignation last Friday, the Prime Minister is restarting budget discussions this week, which will begin with bilateral meetings with the deputy prime ministers of the coalition parties.
A new feature of the process is that each deputy prime minister may be accompanied by one other person. The MR has chosen its party president, Georges-Louis Bouchez, for that role. Other coalition parties indicated that their party leaders would not attend the meetings.
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Bouchez said the decision was logical because it remains unclear whether negotiations will stay within the existing coalition agreement or whether that agreement will need to be revised.
He noted that the current agreement provides for no more than one-ninth of new revenue measures. “If the agreement has to be changed, then we need to negotiate with the party leaders,” Bouchez said.
He added that there was little point in pretending Belgium was only now discovering the role of party leaders, and said the difference was that the MR leader was fully embracing that role and taking full responsibility.
