17 hours of talks fails to deliver an agreement on a new Flemish coalition government (original) (raw)

At 5.15 on Friday morning the negotiatiors from the three parties involved in talks for the formation of a new Flemish Government decided to call it a day after 17 hours of talks. There are still several bones of contention between the parties. These include the wearing of headscarves by teachers and public service counter staff and whether or not to abolish Flanders’ 5 provincial authorities.

The negotiations will resume at 11am. Around 10 issues still need resolving before the Flemish nationalists, socialists and Christian democrat can form a new Flemish government.

VRT News reporter Lonne Van Erp told VRT Radio 1’s morning news and current affairs programme ‘De Ochtend’ that "One of the issues is the continued existence of the provincial authorities. N-VA (the nationalists) want to abolish them from 2029 or 2030, Vooruit (the socialists) are reported to be prepared to go along with this, but CD&V (the Christian democrats) have issues with it.”

“They are also not yet on the same page with regard to the wearing headscarves in the classroom or behind the counter at public services. Vooruit believes it could be a solution to help tackle teacher shortages. But accepting this would be very difficult point for N-VA, because neutrality (i.e. public servants not displaying religious or other affiliations while at work) is a very important principle for them.”

Other issues on which agreement has yet tob e reached included the reduction of the number of members of the Flemish Parliament from 124 to 100. The re-introduction of the obligation to turn up and vote for elections in Flanders and spot checks to expose and tackle discrimination.

It is not that a deal must be found on every single issue. However, “If one party gets its way on one issue, then there has to be something in return for the other.”

Party leaders expected to clear final stumbling blocks

11 am today (Friday) the leaders of N-VA, Vooruit and CD&V, each accompanied by 1 other member of their respective negotiating team, will meet to iron out the final stumbling. If all goes well, they will be joined by the rest of their negotiating team from early afternoon.