Belgium's prime minister offers resignation as budget talks collapse, leaving King Philippe to decide the government's fate
Bart De Wever tendered his resignation on Monday after overnight budget talks failed, but King Philippe deferred a decision and will consult coalition party leaders before meeting the prime minister again on Friday.
Belgium has been thrown into a political crisis after Prime Minister Bart De Wever offered his resignation on Monday, following the collapse of overnight budget negotiations within his five-party coalition government. King Philippe has not yet decided whether to accept the resignation, leaving the government in limbo while the monarch consults the leaders of the coalition parties.
De Wever tendered his resignation during a meeting of about 90 minutes with the king on Monday morning, after coalition parties failed to break months of deadlock over next year's budget. The Royal Palace confirmed that the resignation followed 'the failure of budget negotiations within his government', and said the king was withholding his decision. In a statement, the palace said the king regretted the lack of an agreement that would provide the country with a credible budget, and warned that, amid geopolitical uncertainty and major economic challenges, Belgium could not afford a prolonged political crisis.
The immediate trigger was a late-night session of the inner cabinet that began at 9pm on Sunday and ended at around 1am on Monday without agreement. The talks were meant to settle a package of about 10 billion euros, roughly 11.2 billion dollars, in spending cuts and tax increases that De Wever says are needed to stabilise Belgium's public finances and meet European Union spending rules. The king cut short a holiday that had been scheduled to last until 11 November because of the unscheduled meeting with the prime minister.
The disagreement goes to the heart of who should pay for repairing the budget. De Wever's Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance, known as the N-VA, and the liberal Reformist Movement, or MR, have favoured greater spending restraint, including in healthcare. Their socialist and centrist coalition partners, including Vooruit and Les Engagés, have instead demanded that a larger share of the adjustment come from taxes on wealth. The fifth partner is the Christian Democratic CD&V. Months of talks had failed to bridge that divide, and the weekend session produced no compromise.
Deputy Prime Minister Maxime Prevot, from the francophone centrist party Les Engagés, renewed calls for compromise on Monday, shortly after De Wever's meeting with the king. He said the talks had encountered too many points of disagreement, and urged all sides to put the public interest and a willingness to compromise first, a message echoed in the palace statement. The king will begin consultations with the leaders of the governing coalition parties on Tuesday, and will receive De Wever again at the palace on Friday, before deciding how to proceed.
The stakes are high because of the state of Belgium's public finances. The European Commission forecast in May that Belgium's debt-to-gross domestic product ratio would reach 110.5 per cent this year, behind only Greece, Italy and France among eurozone countries, with a projected general government deficit of 5.2 per cent of GDP. That is far above the EU's 3 per cent deficit ceiling and its 60 per cent debt reference level, and Belgium has been under the bloc's excessive deficit procedure since 2024. Eurostat figures cited in reporting put the deficit at 5.2 per cent of GDP in 2025, with government debt at 108.1 per cent of GDP at the end of that year.
Without an agreement, Belgium would be forced to operate under provisional spending rules next year, allowing it to spend only one-twelfth of this year's budget each month. De Wever had said several weeks ago that he would not accept entering the new year with a provisional budget, which is why the deadlock forced him to act. De Wever, a conservative Flemish nationalist who took office in February 2025, is now struggling to clinch a deal on the 2027 budget before 31 December, the deadline that gives the crisis its urgency.
Financial markets were watching closely. Belgium's 10-year benchmark bonds were trading at a yield of 4.39 per cent on Monday afternoon, against 4.90 per cent for France and 3.29 per cent for Germany, and the breakdown in negotiations was reported to have pushed government bond yields higher, increasing the cost of servicing Belgium's debt. The country's public debt has climbed above 735 billion euros, equivalent to more than 110 per cent of GDP, according to figures cited in the reporting.
What happens next depends on the king's consultations and on whether the coalition parties can find a compromise in the days ahead. If the king ultimately accepts the resignation, he could ask other parties to form a coalition or call fresh elections, though a resignation does not automatically mean an early election will be held. If the parties reach a deal, De Wever could stay on, as happened during last year's budget negotiations, when he visited the palace but did not submit his government's resignation and the parties agreed to allow an additional 50 days to seek a compromise.
For now, Belgium's government continues in a caretaker-like uncertainty: the prime minister has offered to go, the king has asked for time, and the coalition that has governed since February 2025 must decide whether it can still agree on a budget, or whether the country faces a longer period of political instability at a moment when it can least afford one.
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