Belgian Budget Talks Stall Again Over 10 Billion Euro Target as Prime Minister De Wever Warns of a 'Wall of Darkness'
Belgium's federal budget negotiations have stalled again, according to RTBF and Le Soir. The restricted committee, known as the kern, convened by Prime Minister Bart De Wever on Tuesday evening, October 20, to examine a new budget note he had tabled that morning, finished at 00:30 on Wednesday, October 21, with leaders agreeing that work had not advanced far enough to discuss the latest proposal in depth. De Wever then had to settle for bilateral consultations with the deputy prime ministers, with a new kern scheduled for Wednesday evening. The partners still aim to agree on a 10 billion euro budget effort by Thursday morning, October 22.
The coalition is divided over taxes. Vice-Prime Minister David Clarinval of the MR said positions remained very far apart and argued that the budget table still contains too many anticompetitive taxes, whose volume must fall. Paul Magnette of the PS criticised De Wever's approach as 'always the same speech,' while left-wing parties urged the government to find the money among the wealthiest, large fortunes and oil companies recording windfall profits.
Speaking in a Chamber committee on Wednesday morning, De Wever did not go into the content of the talks but again painted a bleak picture of the financial pressure on the country, warning of what he called a 'wall of darkness' and saying the talks were in 'stoppage time.' If the government fails to agree, it risks starting next year under the provisional twelfths regime, a prospect De Wever has ruled out; in that case he would propose a 'schuldenrem,' a debt brake that would freeze the indexation of pensions, civil servants' pay, allowances, state operating budgets and tax scales. (Compiled from RTBF and Le Soir, October 21, via Pollar)
Source: GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 布鲁塞尔比利时联邦议会大厦实景。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons 文件 Federal Parliament, Brussels, Belgium.jpg，Theedi 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权
