Brussels: Europe and the Arabs
King Philippe of Belgium received the leader of the Northern League party N-VA, Bart De Wever, at the Royal Palace on Thursday morning. A statement issued by the palace in Brussels said: "The King asked him to continue his work and to complete his mission successfully within a reasonable time." De Wever will inform the King again about the federal formation on November 4.

After his first formation mission failed in August, coordinator De Wever was tasked again in early September with trying to form a coalition including the Flemish Northern Alliance N-VA, the socialist party Voruit, the Flemish Christian Democratic Party CD&V, the Walloon Liberal Party MR and the Walloon Christian Democratic Party Les Engagés. It was clear that the speed of the task would not be achieved until after the local elections that were actually held last Sunday..

After the first failed attempt, De Wever was able to call himself the coordinator of the formation of the federal government since the beginning of September. However, as is well known, the formation of the government was much slower than De Wever had intended in his first attempt - "the slow train", as he put it. This means that the coordinator does not go to the king with many concrete results.
On Wednesday afternoon, De Wever first met with the leaders of the five parties involved in forming the federal government (N-VA, Vooruit, CD&V, MR and Les Engagés). In short, the aim is to assess the situation and agree on the work schedule for the coming days and weeks.
It is clear that the negotiations will have to continue at a tighter pace in the near future if the five parties want to be able to get next year's budget through parliament on time. If not, they risk losing another year in the budget restructuring process, and as we know the challenge in this area is enormous. It is a huge sum of 28 billion euros.
The Flemish Liberal Prime Minister Alexander De Croo said that King Philippe of Belgium had accepted his resignation after his party, the Flemish Liberals and Democrats, suffered a heavy defeat in the elections held in the first half of June.
De Croo said that the current government will take care of current affairs and prepare for the transition to a new team while he will remain interim prime minister until a new coalition is formed.
According to many observers, the results of the latest elections will lead to complex negotiations in a country divided by language and multiple identities. Belgium is divided along linguistic lines, with French-speaking Wallonia in the south and Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, and governments are always formed by coalitions made up of parties from both regions. Belgium holds the world record for the longest time required to form a government, having named a coalition in December 2021 after a total of 541 days of negotiations. In June, more than 8 million Belgians voted in what was called the “Super Sunday” elections to choose their regional and national representatives and the new European Parliament.