Towards earth via infinity

 Political pundits in Belgium were puzzled by a new twist in government negotiations, that looked in their eyes very much like a revamped old one. The (all three recently elected) presidents of the three parties that form the government Wilmès II, of whom two had already been government negotiators around Newyear, start a new search for a governmental majority. But they gave no indication for a new element, except then that the socialists had opened the road for a minority government as proposal of last resort. They hope to land somewhere around National Day (21 July), on Day 422 since the elections, at the earliest …

 

 After the two socialist party presidents, Rousseau and Magnette, had after five weeks of discreet negotiations concluded on Monday that a minority government of the three traditional political families was the best option to form a new Belgian federal government, it took some time to clarify how far they had already reached consensus on that idea. The fact that they deposed the execution of their report into the hands of the present liberal prime minister Sophie Wilmès, who refused to pick up the hot potato, did not bode well.

 

 Interesting was that Bart De Wever of the N-VA, one of the main candidates for eventual support to get a new government started, also asked Sophie Wilmès to take the initiative (albeit for a genuine majority government). In the end the socialists seem to have hoped that by abstaining, the Greens or N-VA would have helped the tripartite-government through its initial confidence vote, after which it could – since the constitutional reform of 1993 – only be voted away by a no-confidence vote by all opposition parties together (in a coalition of extreme-right and extreme-left and all the other ones) leading to a new government or new elections.

 

 But Wednesday afternoon news came out that the three presidents of the parties that have ministers in the government Wilmès II, have agreed to take the initiative, after a discussion with the prime minister. Egbert Lachaert (Open VLD), Joachim Coens (CD&V) and Georges-Louis Bouchez (from left to right on the picture) afterwards all announced that they would first try to enlarge the present coalition – with only 38 seats for the three parties in the Parliament out of 150 – to obtain an effective majority (of at least 76).

 

 The new thing is that they stressed that they too might seek a minority government if this attempt fails, but not necessarily in the same composition as the socialists proposed. It was not immediately clear if the three really had a new idea in mind, and surely none of the observers detected immediately one. Anyhow the three will take their time until at least 21 July. Although they did not exclude that it might become September.