What is the agenda of federal negotiators during the holidays?

Trainer Bart De Wever (N-VA) must report his mission to the king this afternoon. It will arrive without a deal, which leaves a lot of work undone. The date and duration of the negotiations for the coming period are not yet entirely clear.

Key information

• Bart De Wever (N-VA) must go to the king without a major agreement on the budget.
• After that, he will probably explain the holiday agenda in more detail. Some parties at the table want to continue negotiating, while others want to hit the pause button for a while.
• There is also talk of a possible deadline by which a final agreement may or may not be reached.

Federal government negotiators from Arizona's five parties (N-VA, MR, cd&v, Les Engagés and Vooruit) have discussed security, health care and migration in recent days. They therefore left aside difficult discussions on socio-economic reforms and the budget. De Wever must therefore go to the king without having obtained any progress on this crucial question. Yet there is no doubt that King Philip will extend his mandate again.

Trading while on vacation?

This afternoon, taxation will again be on the agenda. What will happen in the near future is not yet clear. On the Flemish side, we already aim to continue negotiations between Christmas Day and New Year. “It will be up to the trainer to explain this. He is the one who manages the agenda. But I indicated that I would be available in the coming days,” declared Sammy Mahdi (cd&v) to the VRT NWS about this.

The French-speaking parties would rather be in favor of a short break so that everything returns to order.

French-speaking parties want a deadline

According to VTM Newsanother question arises among the French-speaking parties. They would like De Wever to communicate to them not only the schedule for the coming weeks, but also the long-term schedule.

There even appears to be talk of asking for a possible deadline by which a final agreement should or should not be reached. The date of January 15, 2025 would then fall. It's unlikely that there really is such a tight deadline, but the fact is that some parties at the table are clearly growing tired of these endless negotiations. Indeed, there was initially talk of an agreement before Christmas, but the chances of reaching it are now nil. Some negotiators therefore fear that the deadline will be constantly pushed back.

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