Belgium: King can now choose from five options

De Standaard

The economic world made an appeal to the ‘sense of urgency’ of the Belgian political world last week. The interest rate on Belgian government bonds is rising and, if the financial markets select Belgium to be their next prey, things do not look promising in terms of the country's debt repayments. But the seven negotiating political parties merely continued to discuss the 'expansion of the competences of the interim government’ - and they cannot even agree on this. The announcement by N-VA member Jan Jambon "that negotiations between the seven parties have died” hang above the discussions like the sword of Damocles. Should this statement be the N-VA’s standpoint, and remain so, then all schedules will be in tatters. Two suggestions were made in public in the wake of last week’s crash: Elio Di Rupo (PS) said that the liberals could be brought on board, if necessary, while Bart De Wever (N-VA) said that he and Di Rupo would have to sort out the issues together. But Di Rupo rejected this proposal.

Royal mediator Johan Vande Lanotte (SP.A) handed in his resignation to the King last Friday, but will only hear today whether the resignation has been accepted. The King had taken the resignation into consideration, and asked Vande Lanotte to quietly sound out amongst the parties what the further possibilities are. The King has five options now. He could reject the resignation and ask Vande Lanotte to try again – an option with little chance of success, although the CD&V and PS favour it. He could also ask Vande Lanotte to try and find a settlement together with the heads of the two biggest parties, Bart De Wever (N-VA) and Elio Di Rupo (PS), wherein everybody gets something. This option has little chance of success either. The King could also grant Bart De Wever a mandate of his own, with the latter stating he has proposals at the ready, but both the King and the French-speaking parties are reluctant to give the Flemish nationalist the initiative. Another choice is for the King to grant both an N-VA and a CD&V member a mandate together, given that these parties rejected the Vande Lanotte memorandum and the ball is consequently in their court. The final option available to the King is to grant the mandate to a CD&V member alone. So far the CD&V has done everything possible to avoid the leadership of the negotiations.