Belgian coalition talks fall apart, chief negotiator quits

BRUSSELS, Aug. 22 (Xinhua) — Bart De Wever, leader of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, resigned Thursday as the chief negotiator for Belgium’s federal government formation after coalition talks fell apart.
A palace statement said King Philippe accepted De Wever’s resignation on Thursday evening and will himself start consultations on Friday with leaders of the five political parties involved in the ongoing negotiations to form a new government.
De Wever, appointed on July 10 to lead the coalition talks, had been working to bring together five key parties: the N-VA, the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V), the socialist Vooruit, the French-speaking Reformist Movement (MR) and the centrist Les Engagés.
However, negotiations stalled over De Wever’s proposal to introduce a capital gains tax, which was aimed at increasing state revenue by around 500 million euros (some 555 million U.S. dollars) annually.
The tax, supported by the Flemish Socialist party Vooruit, was strongly opposed by MR, who viewed it as a threat to investment and Belgium’s economic competitiveness.
Government formation in Belgium is often a lengthy process, complicated by the nation’s economic, social and administrative divisions across its three regions: Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels-Capital, as the country is equally split into three linguistic communities: Dutch, French and German, each with their own governments.
Belgium holds the world record for the longest government formation period, having gone 541 days without one between 2010 and 2011. ■