Follow-Up: Belgium's King Rejects Prime Minister De Wever's Resignation and Orders Budget Talks to Resume at Once
Brussels — Belgium's Royal Palace said in a statement on November 6 that King Philippe, after receiving Prime Minister Bart De Wever that morning, had decided not to accept the resignation De Wever had tendered and had asked him to resume budget negotiations with the governing coalition immediately. De Wever is to report back to the King on November 16.
The palace said the King had consulted the leaders of the five coalition parties since November 3, and that all of them had reaffirmed their determination to reach an agreement on a sound budgetary path for the next three years, formally committing to make concessions so the government can reach a deal. On that basis, the King concluded that an agreement remains possible under De Wever's leadership.
De Wever tendered his resignation on November 2 after the coalition's core cabinet, meeting through the night of November 1 into the early hours of November 2, failed to agree on roughly 10 billion euros (about $11.2 billion) in savings and tax measures through 2029. Belgium's 2025 budget deficit was about 5.2 percent of gross domestic product, well above the European Union's 3 percent ceiling, and public debt stands at about 108 percent of GDP.
If no budget is agreed by year-end, Belgium will again have to fall back on the emergency 'provisional twelfths' system, spending one-twelfth of the previous year's budget each month — an outcome De Wever has called a terrible failure for the government. Unions have threatened a general strike, and the crisis is being watched across Europe: Brussels-based Euroclear holds the bulk of the frozen Russian central bank assets, about 185 billion euros, and De Wever has been one of the strongest opponents of using them to fund a reparations loan for Ukraine.
（Source: Associated Press）
Source: Associated Press
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 图：比利时首相德韦弗（资料图，2025年9月于安特卫普港）。公共领域（美国国土安全部照片），经 Wikimedia Commons。 / Photo: Belgian Prime Minister Bart De Wever (file photo, Port of Antwerp, September 2025). Public domain (U.S. Department of Homeland Security photo), via Wikimedia Commons.
