After his consultation round with the party chairmen, King Filip has accepted the resignation of preformateurs Bart De Wever (N-VA) and Paul Magnette (PS). He has appointed Open VLD chairman Egbert Lachaert to now take the initiative. The royal palace announced this on Tuesday.
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“The king has charged Mr Egbert Lachaert with the task of taking the necessary initiatives with the aim of forming a government with a broad majority in parliament. Mr. Lachaert has accepted this assignment and will submit a first report to the King on August 28, ”the announcement from the palace reads.
Taking position
The choice for Lachaert shows that N-VA chairman Bart De Wever and PS chairman Paul Magnette really were reluctant to continue their preformation work. SP.A and CD&V, among others, had argued for this in recent days, and it is no secret that the Palace also prefers a government that includes both N-VA and PS. But apparently the two really do not see it possible.
At the same time, this appointment forces Lachaert to take up a position of his own, separate from his MR colleague Bouchez, to whom he has latched onto in recent weeks. Lachaert has to choose a direction in his role as preformer: purple-yellow or purple-green. At the end of last year, he was the biggest opponent of purple-green within Open VLD. At the same time, it is now also he who has made the purple-yellow coalition of De Wever and Magnette difficult in recent days. Opinions are also divided within his own party, but now he will have to show his colors, and time is running out.
Bubble of five
De Wever and Magnette had offered their resignation as preformateurs to the king on Monday morning. They had managed to form a ‘bubble of five’ with CD&V, CDH and SP.A, but those five parties together do not have enough seats to form a majority.
The preformers initially hoped to be able to participate in Lachaert’s Open VLD, but they indicated that they would only join the government if the MR of Georges-Louis Bouchez was involved and the design note was considerably refined. This was out of the question for the preformers. Especially De Wever indicated that he did not trust Bouchez at all.
The preformers then held talks with Groen and Ecolo in the hope of convincing them, but there too the water turned out to be too deep. Especially when they sent a joint announcement with the liberals at the end of last week. The signal for De Wever and Magnette to give up.
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