Brussels: (The Brussels Morning Newspaper) – October 2023 they have been trained on data. The upcoming Belgian government coalition headed by N-VA’s Bart De Wever is conducting talks on tax employment and pension reforms while socialists and centrists resist health care service cuts. Flanders is assembling a new coalition.
Last week negotiators of five parties that are destined to create the future government coalition still referred to as Arizona had so many ideas especially on tax, jobs and pensions. For example some newspapers discussed possible amendments to the personal income tax brackets or even allowing working parents deduct nursery fees completely during this week’s break in De Wever.
What Changes does N-VA propose for pensions and rail control?
N-VA wants to get rid of certain pension plans like the special one for civil servants and tweak Belgium’s automatic wage adjustment system to only index net wages during high inflation not gross wages. On August 2nd the Flemish nationalist received criticism for suggesting splitting the control of Belgium’s rail system among regions even though it was warned before that this could cause problems for national transportation.
The health budget is something that Vooruit CD&V and Les Engagés really want to protect from being cut by N-VA. This week De Wever will spend his time pushing on before the next deadline. A briefing of the negotiations will be made to the Belgian King on Monday August 19th. The health budget is a priority for Vooruit, CD&V and Les Engagés while N-VA intends to decrease it. This week De Wever will be busy trying to move the discussions forward before the next deadline. He plans to give an update on the negotiations to the Belgian King on Monday August 19th. All five parties in this possible future government aim to agree on everything by September 20th. De Wever wants to be the Prime Minister a first for a Flemish nationalist. In September Belgium must share its budget plan with the European Commission. Depending on how serious the plan is Belgium might have more time up to 7 years instead of 4 to make budget changes. The national level this week will also see discussions restarting to create a new majority in Flanders. The Flemish negotiators decided to take a break from August 3rd to August 11th
