The resigning Vivaldi government has drawn up a budget for the first three months of next year based on provisional twelfths. This was necessary because there is no new federal government yet. Without a budget, services come to a standstill and pensions or civil servant wages can no longer be paid.
The disadvantage of the provisional twelfths technique – each month one twelfth of the budget of the last approved full budget may be exceeded – is that no reforms or savings can be approved. Additional expenditure is also difficult. For example, no funds have been provided for new military support to Ukraine for the first three months of 2025.
The House did approve an amendment from the MR faction that frees up 40 million euros to compensate livestock farmers for the mandatory vaccination of cattle and sheep against the bluetongue virus, a measure by MR Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval that also received the green light from the House on Thursday. .
N-VA and PVDA abstained from the vote on the emergency budget, Vlaams Belang voted against. The Vivaldi parties PS, MR, Vooruit, CD&V, Groen, Ecolo and Open VLD voted in favor, as did Les Engagés.
Reduced party grants
The plenary meeting unanimously gave the green light on Thursday night for a reduction in party contributions by 5.32 percent in 2025.
There has been a lot of discussion about the generous party donations in our country for years. The Flemish parties are certainly in favor of cutting this. The parties negotiating a new federal government would like to tighten their belts, but that government is not there yet. At the same time, the House must decide before the end of the year on next year’s party donations.
Chamber chairman Peter De Roover therefore submitted a bill to trim the grants by 5.32 percent. This extends a measure by the resigning Vivaldi government to no longer index the budget, which was due to expire on December 31. For the time being, the measure only applies to 2025, because there will probably be a new government before the end of the year that can conclude a broader agreement, De Roover indicated.
Opposition parties Vlaams Belang and PVDA each submitted an amendment to reduce party donations by half. They call De Roover’s proposal “purely symbolic”, but ultimately approved the more limited reduction in subsidies.
27,500 soldiers at a time
The plenary Chamber also gave the green light on Thursday for the 2025 army contingent. This may number a maximum of 27,500 soldiers next year, a slight increase compared to this year. Only PVDA abstained from the vote.
The army contingent must be determined every year and expresses the maximum number of soldiers who may be under arms simultaneously on the same day of the year.
