Monday, 9 March 2020

Speeding up a standstill




 King Philip has given his negotiators, Sabine Laruelle and Patrick Dewael, presidents of respectively the federal Senate and the federal Chamber of Representatives, one week more to time ‘to form rapidly a new government’. He received both of them late in the afternoon at the Royal Palace in Brussels.

 It is the word ‘rapidly’ in the official statement of the palace that sounded remarkable yesterday evening. Most observers assumed that all attempts of both negotiators had failed.

 The last gunshot was the announcement by Joachim Coens, the president of the Flemish Christian democrats, that two third of the members of his party had, in an internal poll, expressed their preference for a coalition with ‘a Flemish majority’, so including the Flemish nationalists of NVA. Coens himself translated this into a wish to bring all parties that are ready to administer the country together around the table, without veto’s, before starting the real negotiating work.


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