Brussels (The Brussels Morning Newspaper): Brussels formateur Elke Van den Brandt struggles to form government seeking majority with Vooruit and Open VLD. Talks with Dutch-speakers stalled collaboration with French-speakers challenging due to party preferences and vetoes.
Brussels formateur Elke Van den Brandt (from Groen) hasn’t been able to take a summer break because she still can’t find a majority after many talks with Dutch-speaking parties except Vlaams Belang. Meanwhile,David Leisterh (from MR) is working with French-speaking partners like Les EngagĂ©s and PS but he’s waiting for the Dutch-speaking side to make progress. They need a majority from both language groups for the Brussels government and while they can do it separately it’s better if they work together. They met again on Monday to discuss things but didn’t make any progress. Van den Brandt emphasized the urgency of finding a solution to avoid worsening the Brussels budget and said all parties need to act responsibly.
What challenges is Brussels formateur Elke Van den Brandt facing in forming a government coalition?
Van den Brandt is looking to form a government with three parties: Vooruit, Open VLD, and CD&V. There are two ideas on how to do this. One idea is for Groen to join with Vooruit and Open VLD, while CD&V would just get an extra government role instead of a minister. CD&V doesn’t like this because they don’t want to work with the other parties from the last government. The second idea is for Groen and Team Fouad Ahidar to work together along with another party like Vooruit or Open VLD but Open VLD has already said they won’t work with Ahidar. Everyone wants to move forward but the talks are taking a long time and if things don’t change soon they might start discussions with the French-speaking parties.
The Dutch-speaking parties are concerned that they won’t have much influence over the coalition agreement. A source within CD&V mentioned that they want to prevent the French-speaking parties from discussing matters without the Dutch speakers. This has affected their stance towards Fouad Ahidar. Foruit indicates that they still prefer a four-party collaboration especially since they want to leverage the experience of CD&V member Dalle for budget discussions and potential reforms. If that doesn’t work out they are considering other parties like N-VA or Team Fouad Ahidar. Van den Brandt has spoken with both parties but N-VA is not willing to comment on it. Ahidar reports that several members of Vooruit in Brussels want to collaborate with him but he hasn’t reached out to Open VLD.
Van den Brandt is in a tough spot. Groen knows that working with Ahidar will lead to hard talks especially about issues like slaughter without stunning. The MR party isn’t excited about teaming up with Ahidar either. The PS says it will only stay in the government if it can work with Vooruit or else things will get complicated for them. Laaouej from PS is on holiday and says they need a clear coalition plan from the Dutch-speaking parties soon.
