Belgium Budget Crisis: King Philippe to Hold Talks After Bart De Wever Offers to Resign

The prime minister met the king at the Royal Palace in Brussels for about 90 minutes on Monday.

Earlier that morning, ministers had ended another round of negotiations without agreeing on a package of approximately €10 billion in budget measures through 2029.

Royal consultations begin on Tuesday

The Royal Palace announced the consultations on 2 November.

Its statement said the king regretted the absence of an agreement on a budget capable of addressing Belgium’s challenges. It called on coalition parties to give priority to the public interest and compromise, referring to economic difficulties and geopolitical uncertainty.

According to a schedule reported by Belgian media, the king is due to receive Les Engagés leader Yvan Verougstraete and CD&V chairman Sammy Mahdi on Tuesday. He will meet Conner Rousseau of Vooruit and Georges-Louis Bouchez of the Reformist Movement (MR) on Wednesday, followed by Valérie Van Peel of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) on Thursday. De Wever is scheduled to return to the palace on Friday 6 November at 10.30 am.

De Wever has led the coalition, known as Arizona, since February 2025. It brings together the Flemish nationalist N-VA, the French-speaking liberal MR, the Flemish socialist Vooruit, the Flemish Christian democrats CD&V and the French-speaking centrist Les Engagés.

How the budget negotiations broke down

De Wever spent the weekend holding separate meetings with deputy prime ministers. On Sunday evening, the inner cabinet assembled at about 9 pm to review revised budget figures. The meeting ended at around 1 am on Monday without an agreement, according to the Belga news agency.

The disagreement concerns how much of the proposed fiscal adjustment should come from taxes and how much from lower spending. N-VA and MR have pressed for larger spending reductions, including in healthcare. Vooruit and Les Engagés have sought additional contributions from people with greater financial resources. CD&V has supported a larger contribution from wealthier taxpayers.

MR deputy prime minister David Clarinval blamed the failure on what he described as excessive taxation in the proposals. He told reporters there were “too many taxes” under discussion. Clarinval said the budget calculations included more than €3 billion in taxes. Other coalition parties disputed that figure. Previous discussions had referred to approximately €2 billion in additional revenue, Belga reported.

The parties also differed over limits on the growth of healthcare spending. Sources cited by Belga said Vooruit and Les Engagés had difficulties with proposals to reduce the permitted growth rate.

MR had published a more detailed plan in September. It proposed €4 billion from reforms already decided but not implemented, €1.5 billion from measures intended to support economic growth and €4.5 billion in expenditure cuts. The party said those three elements could meet the €10 billion objective without further general tax increases. The proposal appeared on MR’s official website on 11 September, before the latest round of negotiations.

Earlier drafts also raised questions about value-added tax. The Brussels Times reported in October that proposals had included increasing the standard VAT rate and altering reduced rates. MR opposed a higher standard rate; Vooruit opposed increases affecting everyday purchases. Those discussions preceded the revised figures examined by ministers on Sunday.

In a televised interview on 28 October, Vooruit leader Rousseau urged De Wever to make the budget proposal fairer. He called for millionaires to contribute more and objected to further savings affecting pensioners and healthcare. He also said he wanted to avoid an early election.

Les Engagés deputy prime minister Maxime Prévot renewed the call for higher contributions from wealthier households on Monday. “A contribution from those with substantial financial means is legitimate,” he wrote on X, according to Reuters. Prévot urged the coalition parties to return to negotiations. Reuters reported similar calls from opposition parties, employers’ associations and trade unions.

The government's EU budget commitments

Belgium has been subject to the EU’s excessive deficit procedure since July 2024. The Council of the European Union revised the country’s corrective spending plan in June 2025 and set 2029 as the deadline to bring the excessive deficit to an end.

The revised recommendation limits annual nominal growth in net public expenditure to 2.5% in 2026 and 2027, followed by 2.1% in 2028 and 2029. Under EU treaty rules, the reference values are 3% of gross domestic product for the government deficit and 60% for public debt.

The European Commission’s economic forecast, published on 21 May 2026, projected Belgium’s budget deficit at 5.2% of GDP in 2026 and 5.4% in 2027. It estimated that debt would rise from 107.9% of GDP in 2025 to 110.5% in 2026 and 112.8% in 2027.

The Commission forecast economic growth of 0.7% this year and 0.9% next year. Its report attributed part of the expected rise in the 2027 deficit to higher defence expenditure and interest payments. Defence spending was projected to increase from 1.4% of GDP in 2025 to 1.8% in 2027, reflecting planned deliveries of military equipment.

Belgium’s borrowing costs have also increased. Reuters reported that the yield on benchmark 10-year government bonds was 4.39% on the afternoon of 2 November, compared with 3.48% four months earlier. French 10-year bonds yielded 4.90% at the same point, while German bonds yielded 3.29%.

De Wever has warned repeatedly about what he calls an “interest snowball”: an increase in borrowing costs and debt-service payments that he says requires budget measures. His warnings form part of the government’s case for reducing the deficit.

An earlier budget settlement

The current coalition reached a budget agreement on 24 November 2025 after more than 20 hours of negotiations. De Wever had previously asked the king for additional time to conclude those talks. The agreement contained approximately €9.2 billion in measures, according to Belga.

The package included higher VAT on selected services, changes to energy excise duties and adjustments to wage indexation for higher earners. It also covered healthcare co-payments and the taxation of financial assets and banking activities. A general VAT increase was avoided.

Belga reported further provisions involving the securities tax, bank taxation, a levy on small parcels arriving from outside the EU and an increase in the tax on short-distance flights. The package also set out measures concerning people on long-term sickness leave.

In December, the government agreed legislation to implement parts of the package. Belga reported that changes to wage indexation for salaries above €4,000 gross a month were postponed until 2027. The previous agreement did not settle the budget proposals now under discussion for 2027.

Budget approval and provisional funding

Tuesday 3 November had been treated as a political deadline for securing a coalition agreement before the budget moved through parliament. The 2027 federal budget is intended to be approved before the end of December and to take effect on 1 January.

Belgium’s provisional-twelfths system allows the state to authorise monthly expenditure based on the previous year’s budget when a new annual budget has not been approved. De Wever has said he opposes starting 2027 under those arrangements.

The Belgian Chamber of Representatives is responsible for considering the federal budget.