N-VA leader De Wever needs more time to present report to king

N-VA party president Bart De Wever has been given one more week to draw up a report for King Philippe on the formation of a coalition government. De Wever was initially asked by the king to submit his findings yesterday, but the N-VA leader has requested a further week to continue talks with parties on both sides of the language border.

De Wever (pictured) is expected to try to create a centre-right coalition government that would include his own party but exclude the French-speaking socialists (PS). He is believed to be close to reaching an agreement with the Flemish Christian-democrats (CD&V) and the liberals (Open VLD), but he faces a tougher challenge in trying to persuade French-speaking parties to join a coalition that includes his nationalist party.

De Wever is said to be working towards an agreement with the French-speaking liberals (MR) and the Christian-democrats (CDH). Political analysts are not optimistic that this is likely to succeed. “It’s impressive that the other political leaders are keeping quiet,” noted political scientist Nicolas Bouteca of Ghent University, referring to the lack of public statement over the last two weeks. “But it’s possible they just want to watch De Wever fail. We don’t know how believable their willingness to talk to N-VA is.”

De Wever’s role as informateur is to explore possible ways of creating a coalition government. Once that has happened, a formateur is appointed by the King to put together a government. But naming a formateur is still a long way off, according to Bouteca.

photo: Bart De Wever arrives at the palace yesterday

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