Condemned to each other
They stand for exactly the opposite of each other, but after the elections of June 13th, they are condemned to each other: N-VA-president Bart De Wever and PS-president Elio Di Rupo. The first one is a Flemish nationalist, who doesn't want more taxes and favors a very big state reform. The second one is a strong supporter of Belgium as we know it, doesn't want an austerity policy and doesn't like state reform.
They share nothing, except this: they are the biggest political parties in their part of the country.
The next few days will have to show if they can work together after all. There are some reasons why maybe, just maybe, they can work it out.
As we told already, sooner or later there will be pressure of financial markets to find an agreement. At the same time, there are no elections in the first three years, which reduces the pressure to disagree just because you might lose voters support.
But after the elections, three reasons emerged on top of that. The first is that the N-VA and the PS are by far the largest parties. It is clear they are in charge and they can even afford to lose some votes without getting into problems. This wasn't so in the last federal elections in 2007.
The second one is that Mr. De Wever and Mr. Di Rupo seem to understand they are condemned to each other. Bart De Wever said he wants to cooperate with the French speaking politicians. Di Rupo said he understands Flanders wants a state reform. At least, that's a start.
The third one is that a mirror government, as we explained in our last post, has become very likely and even has the 100 out of 150 seats in the lower house of parliament that are required to pass a state reform.
Nobody said this would be easy. But there is a chance Bart De Wever and Elio Di Rupo can work it out.
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