Brussels (Belgium) (AFP) – Difficult budget negotiations are once again plunging Belgium into uncertainty. Due to a lack of compromise within his coalition, Prime Minister Bart De Wever presented his resignation on Monday to the King, who has not made a decision and will receive him again at the end of the week.

Published on: 02/11/2026 - 12:51Modified on: 02/11/2026 - 13:58

King Philippe "holds his decision in abeyance" and will begin consultations this Tuesday with the party presidents of the various partners of the majority, indicated the Royal Palace.

Belgium “cannot afford a prolonged political crisis” around this 2027 budget, he insisted.

“The King therefore appeals to everyone's sense of responsibility and urges all stakeholders to make the general interest and a sense of compromise prevail. The Prime Minister will be received again by the King this Friday,” added the Palace in a press release.

During the night from Sunday to Monday, the coalition parties did not reach an agreement on the Belgian federal budget in 2027, in particular the massive budgetary effort of 10 billion euros demanded by the head of government by 2029.

Faced with these persistent divisions, Bart De Wever went to propose his resignation to the King on Monday morning.

The Flemish conservative has not spoken since this meeting. “There are days like this”, we could simply read on the Instagram account of her cat Maximus, one of her communication tools, willingly offbeat.

The same type of blockage took place a year ago, with a threat of resignation made by the Prime Minister before an interview with the King.

Since February 2025, Bart De Wever has led a coalition of five parties anchored to the center-right (N-VA, MR, Les Engagés, CD&V and Vooruit).

The head of government is counting on a massive budgetary effort of 10 billion euros by 2029 to reduce the Belgian deficit which exceeds 5% of GDP.

Protests against austerity

The effort mainly involves cuts in public spending, particularly in health, but also includes, on the revenue side, an increase in VAT which one of the coalition partners is against.

This party, the Reform Movement (MR, French-speaking liberal), is fiercely opposed to any further increase in taxation, which it believes would further aggravate inflation.

“The volume of taxes on the table remains far too high and far exceeds what was planned in the government agreement. Refusing to carry out real reforms to reduce public spending condemns the country to widening an ever-increasing deficit,” responded David Clarinval, member of MR and Minister of the Economy, on Monday.

Within the coalition, the Flemish Christian Democrats called for discussions to resume as quickly as possible given the seriousness of the situation.

And the centrists of the Engagés pleaded for an “equitable” distribution of efforts “between those who have the most and other citizens”, thanks to a “contribution from the broadest shoulders”.

In opposition, the French-speaking Socialist Party accused the executive of "protecting the wealthy at all costs to the detriment of the rest of the population."

On the far right, Vlaams Belang criticized the government for a “historic budgetary crisis”.

Until now, Bart De Wever has refused the prospect of an emergency budget which would be modeled on the last annual financial year, the practice known as "provisional twelfths", which is authorized by Belgian law.

The discussions are being held under pressure from unions, who have been mobilizing against austerity for months.

On October 9, several tens of thousands of demonstrators marched against the austerity, with scenes of violence and damage on the sidelines of the procession.

Many of the slogans in the demonstration spoke of the growing wealth gap and the desire to see high earners contribute more to the efforts.

On the employers' side, the Belgian Business Federation (FEB) called for avoiding "political crisis" and "uncertainty", at a time when "the financial markets are paying more and more attention to Belgium", according to comments reported by the Belga agency.

© 2026 AFP

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