Belgium's Prime Minister Bart De Wever (N-VA) will offer his resignation to King Philippe on Monday morning after he failed to reach an agreement on the 2027 federal budget.
The king can decide to accept the resignation or start a broader round of talks with political parties. De Wever decided to visit the king following a weekend of unsuccessful bilateral meetings with his ministers.
The talks have stalled after Vooruit (Flemish socialists), CD&V (Flemish Christian Democrats) and Les Engagés (Francophone centrists) reportedly asked for increased taxes on the "strongest financial shoulders," something MR (Flancophone liberals) and N-VA (Flemish nationalists) strongly oppose.
De Wever arrived at the Royal Palace shortly after 09:30.
If the king accepts De Wever's resignation, new elections might be scheduled. However, forming a new government based on the balance of power from the previous elections could also still be an option.
However, in the past, governments often continued working after an initial visit to the king. It may therefore still be possible to meet Tuesday’s deadline and avoid working with provisional budgets.
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De Wever had previously made clear that he wanted nothing to do with a system of provisional twelfths (allowing monthly expenditure of no more than one twelfth of the last approved budget for 2026).
De Wever hoped to find €10 billion in either cuts or new revenue for next year's budget, as the federal government needs to curb its deficit by 2029, as it might be hit by the so-called snowball effect of compounding interest. In practice, this would see the government forced to borrow money to make interest payments.
The Belgian deficit sits at 5.2% of GDP, the highest in the eurozone, with the debt rising to over 110% of GDP this year.
Across the eurozone, only France (116%), Italy (137%) and Greece (146%) have a higher relative debt than Belgium.
Prime Minister Bart De Wever arrives for a meeting at the Royal Palace. Credit: Nicolas Maeterlinck
