Bart De Wever’s five-party coalition, which Belgian media call the “Arizona” government, went into Sunday night trying once more to settle a fight over about €10 billion in budget cuts and tax increases that, according to Reuters, has run for months. By early Monday the talks had failed. The restricted cabinet, or kern, broke up around 1 a.m. without an agreement, according to VRT NWS and the Belga news agency, and Deputy Prime Minister David Clarinval of the francophone liberal MR announced overnight that the meeting had produced no deal, RTBF reported.
De Wever, of the Flemish nationalist N-VA, left the prime minister’s office at 16 rue de la Loi around 2:30 a.m. without speaking to reporters, according to HLN. A few hours later he went to the Royal Palace. He arrived a little before 9:30 a.m. local time, about 12:30 a.m. PT, RTBF and Belga reported, and he planned to offer the resignation of his government, according to RTBF’s information. HLN reported that the king interrupted a holiday for the meeting.
According to VRT NWS, the coalition joins N-VA and MR with three partners: the Flemish socialists of Vooruit, the Flemish Christian democrats of CD&V and the francophone centrists of Les Engagés. VRT NWS political journalist Bart Verhulst described the split as one about who should carry the load. “It’s at a standstill because socialist Vooruit wants people with the ‘strongest shoulders’ to make greater efforts, as do centrist Les Engagés and Christian democrat CD&V. On the other hand, you have Flemish nationalist N-VA and conservative liberal MR – a classic left-right divide, in other words,” he said, according to VRT NWS.
VRT NWS also reported where two of the parties stood. Clarinval voiced opposition to “too much taxation,” and Foreign Minister Maxime Prévot of Les Engagés said that listing all the sticking points would take “an eternity.” In the French-language version carried by VRT and Belga, Prévot put it this way as he left the prime minister’s office: “Si je dois dire tout ce qui coince, cela va prendre un temps fou.”
According to Reuters, which cited De Tijd, N-VA and MR want cuts in healthcare spending, while their socialist and centrist partners have demanded higher taxes on wealth. Reuters reported that interest rates on Belgian government bonds have risen sharply in recent months, and that De Wever has warned of a debt and interest-cost spiral in which the government would borrow money only to pay the interest on its existing loans.
The numbers behind the fight come from Europe’s budget rules. Belgium needs to save about €10 billion to stay within EU limits, Euronews reported; its budget deficit reached 5% last year, against a maximum of 3% under European rules, and its national debt stands above €735 billion, more than 110% of GDP, where the EU permits 60%. During the overnight talks De Wever even put a limited emergency budget of €4 billion on the table, and the partners rejected that too, according to HLN.
Verhulst called the resignation offer a “dramatic turn of events.” “If this isn’t a political crisis, then I don’t know what is,” he said, according to VRT NWS. He laid out the king’s choices: “Either the King accepts the resignation, in which case the government will fall, or the King will take time to consider the resignation and give De Wever more time, as he did last year.”
Watch: Dutch TV on De Wever’s resignation offer, via @WNLVandaag on X
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Two reports pointed toward the second path. Sources told De Tijd that the king would likely not accept the resignation immediately, Reuters reported, and HLN political journalist Karel Lattrez called holding it in consideration the most likely scenario, according to HLN. Acceptance would not automatically mean an election either. “Il est toujours possible de former un nouveau gouvernement sur la base des rapports de force issus des dernières élections,” VRT political journalist Ivan De Vadder said, according to VRT and Belga, meaning a new government could still form from the balance of power left by the last election. Euronews, by contrast, wrote that new elections would follow an acceptance.
VRT NWS recalled a similar moment a year ago. In early November 2025 the same coalition failed to find about €10 billion, and De Wever, rather than resign, asked the king to extend the deadline and received 50 extra days, VRT reported. The partners reached a deal on €9.2 billion in savings on Nov. 24, 2025, VRT reported. “That was a kind of leverage at the time. Now the word ‘resignation’ is being used explicitly,” Verhulst said.
RTBF described the visit to the palace as possibly De Wever’s last card to shock the party leaderships into a deal by Tuesday noon, the final deadline to present a 2027 budget, according to RTBF. Without one, the state would fall back on provisional twelfths, spending each month one twelfth of the last budget the Chamber approved, according to VRT and Belga, a scenario De Wever had already ruled out, they reported. The VRT NWS analysis sketched the two paths left: “In principle, they could meet again as early as late this morning, for a final attempt to reach a deal tonight and be able to go to parliament tomorrow. Or we’re heading for something far worse.”
Outside the palace gates on Monday morning, photographers and camera crews waited in the rain, as a photo posted on X by @Mateusz at 9:41 a.m. local time showed. This desk will not report the king’s decision until the palace or Belgian outlets confirm it.