King Philippe has rejected Prime Minister Bart De Wever's (N-VA) resignation during a meeting on Friday, giving the Prime Minister's federal government 10 more days to reach an agreement on next year's budget.
"Following talks with the five party leaders of the coalition, the King has decided to reject the resignation of the Prime Minister," the Belgian Royal Palace shared in a statement. "The King has asked him to resume negotiations for a budget."
De Wever will report back to the King on 16 November.
De Wever handed in his resignation on Monday, after the PM deemed the negotiations around a budget for 2027 within his coalition to have failed. He had set a target of curbing the national deficit by €10 billion back in September.
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.
As things stand now, Belgium will be hit by a so-called "snowball of compounding interest" in 2029, as the country will have to borrow money to pay interest on its debt.
Last weekend, an ultimate effort to find an agreement failed, as parties within the government failed to agree on where to make adjustments. A provisional monthly budget will have to be used at the start of next year, as parliament will no longer have enough time to put a budget agreement into law.
De Wever called the use of provisional budgets a "horrible failure" in Parliament on Thursday.
