2023-07-25 08:48:48
It is written, black on white, in the Vivaldi government agreement of October 2020, in the chapter “institutional reforms”: “It is advisable to avoid, in the future, that the formations of government drag on. In order to facilitate the formation of a government, we will evaluate the rules for the formation of a new federal government, by providing, for example, an official deadline or a release mechanism“.
Except that since then, we can’t say that thinking has advanced much, except for one or the other idea here and there in a few interviews with political leaders. This Tuesday, it is the turn of Groen deputy, Kristof Kalvo, in “De Standaard”. And the repeated promise that the Chamber will consider a series of proposals on this theme of the future formation of governments before the end of this year.
Hearings of experts started a year ago already in relative discretion in the House’s “Constitution and Institutional Renewal” Committee, which should finally lead to a report in the fall with “simple” solutions, in particular making it possible to circumvent the fact that the articles on the subject have not been declared open to revision for this legislature. The idea is to already look for a compromise that could help as early as 2024. Just in case…
Very sad “records”
Objective: find a way to put an end to the training “marathons” that characterize Belgium. Thus, over the last 50 years (1968-2020), no less than six years – 1/10th of the time – have been consumed in allowing the establishment of national and then federal governments.
A quick reminder of the most recent “cases”:
541 days (of crisis) separated the elections of June 13, 2010 and the installation of the Di Rupo government (PS/CD&V/MR/sp.a/Open Vld, cdH), on December 5, 2011. The De Croo government (PS/MR/Écolo/CD&V/Open Vld/sp.a/Groen) was born on October 1, 2020, 494 days after the federal elections of 2 May 6, 2019 – but if we take into account the fall of the Michel government on December 9, 2018, “current” affairs and the end of a majority government and in full exercise, it has been 662 days, which is undoubtedly the longest political crisis in the history of Belgium. A “more peaceful” parenthesis: the Michel government (MR/N-VA/CD&V/Open Vld) had been formed in “only” 139 days between the ballot on May 25, 2014 and the swearing-in on October 11 of the same year…
Delays that most members of the political class no longer want as instability tends to become structural given the immense difficulties in forming federal governments. And the 2024 vintage does not look simpler.
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