Following the simultaneous federal elections and regional elections of 26 May 2019, negotiations started to form a new Federal Government as well as new regional governments: a Flemish, Walloon, French Community, German Community and Brussels Government. As the results of the elections had shown again the big difference in voting preference between Wallonia and Flanders, it quickly became apparent that forming a new Federal Government would not be easy. While the Government of the German-speaking Community was formed only a few days after the elections and the Brussels Government was formed one month later, the other regional governments were only formed after the summer, in September and October 2019. At the federal level, the deadlock was never resolved, but nevertheless, a new government was formed in March 2020. Its mission is only to fight against the coronavirus, as several of the opposing parties agreed to support a new Wilmès II Government identical to the current caretaker Wilmès I Government to overcome the COVID-19 pandemic in Belgium, de-facto ending the search for a new government. In reality however, it remains to be seen what will happen after the support period of the opposition parties ends. In late June, a new government will need to be formed or the current Wilmès II Government mandate needs to be extended.
Overview
Federal government
Timeline
ImageSize = width:900 height:auto barincrement:30 PlotArea = top:10 bottom:30 right:70 left:20 AlignBars = early DateFormat = dd/mm/yyyy Period = from:21/12/2018 till:01/12/2020 TimeAxis = orientation:horizontal ScaleMajor = unit:month increment:1 start:01/01/2019 ScaleMinor = unit:month increment:1 start:01/01/2019 Colors = id:canvas value:rgb Backgroundcolors = canvas:white BarData = barset:Rulers PlotData= width:10 align:left fontsize:S shift: anchor:till barset:Rulers from: 26/05/2019 till: 26/05/2019 color:Black text:"2019 election" from: 30/05/2019 till: 07/10/2019 color:Blue text:"Informer Didier Reynders " from: 30/05/2019 till: 07/10/2019 color:Red text:"Informer Johan Vande Lanotte " from: 08/10/2019 till: 05/11/2019 color:Yellow text:"Preformationist Geert Bourgeois " from: 08/10/2019 till: 05/11/2019 color:Red text:"Preformationist Rudy Demotte " from: 05/11/2019 till: 10/12/2019 color:Red text:"Informer Paul Magnette " from: 10/12/2019 till: 31/01/2020 color:Blue text:"Informer Georges-Louis Bouchez " from: 10/12/2019 till: 31/01/2020 color:Orange text:"Informer Joachim Coens " from: 31/01/2020 till: 14/02/2020 color:orange text:"Royal assignment holder Koen Geens " from: 19/02/2020 till: 16/03/2020 color:Blue text:"Royal assignment holder Patrick Dewael " from: 19/02/2020 till: 16/03/2020 color:Blue text:"Royal assignment holder Sabine Laruelle " from: 16/03/2020 till: 17/03/2020 color:blue text:"Formateur Sophie Wilmès " from: 13/05/2020 till: 15/06/2020 color:red text: "Taker of initiative Paul Magnette " from: 13/05/2020 till: 15/06/2020 color:red text: "Taker of initiative Conner Rousseau " from: 17/06/2020 till: 19/07/2020 color:blue text:"Taker of initiative Georges-Louis Bouchez " from: 17/06/2020 till: 19/07/2020 color:orange text: "Taker of initiative Joachim Coens " from: 17/06/2020 till: 19/07/2020 color:blue text: "Taker of initiative Egbert Lachaert " from: 20/07/2020 till: 20/07/2020 color:Yellow text:"Formationist Bart De Wever " from: 20/07/2020 till: 20/07/2020 color:Red text:"Formationist Paul Magnette " from: 21/12/2018 till: 27/10/2019 color:blue text:"Michel II caretaker government " from: 27/10/2019 till: 17/03/2020 color:blue text:"Wilmès I caretaker government " from: 17/03/2020 till: 20/07/2020 color:blue text:"Wilmès II minority government " from: 27/03/2020 till: 26/06/2020 color:black text:"Opposition party support period against COVID-19" barset:skip King Philippe appointed Didier Reynders and Johan Vande Lanotte as informateurs. They are tasked with looking for possibilities to form a government coalition. On 8 October, the King appointed two preformateurs: Geert Bourgeois and Rudy Demotte, each being a former minister-president and member of the largest party in respectively Flanders and Wallonia. The remaining parties in the negotiations were N-VA, PS, sp.a, CD&V, Open Vld and MR. Two weeks later, both Green parties were invited again. They did not succeed in finding a coalition of parties, upon which the King appointed PS leader Paul Magnette as informateur on 5 November. Two likely coalitions are:
A negotiation paper of Magnette's leaked to the media on 27 November, which contained significantly left-leaning proposals, indicating a push for a purple-green coalition. On 1 December, it turned out that those parties held a meeting unbeknownst to N-VA and CD&V. The paper was also unacceptable to many within Open Vld. On 10 December 2019, the King appointed Joachim Coens and Georges-Louis Bouchez as informateurs. Both had at that moment become leader of their respective party only days earlier. They concluded that both likely coalitions were not yet sufficiently viable and other options needed to be considered as well. In January 2020, federal representative Emir Kir was excluded from the PS, leaving the purple-green without a majority. Hence, CD&V has become indispensable for political reasons to form such coalition. In a move seen largely as his own initiative, King Philippe appointed federal Minister of Justice and senior CD&V politician Koen Geens as “Royal assignment holder” with the task to look for any possible coalitions. However, his party quickly ruled out joining a purple-green coalition, which left Geens focussing on bringing PS and N-VA closer together to form a “purple-yellow” coalition, with CD&V probably taking Open VLD’s place therein. It is said that progress to this purpose was made and several amicable meetings took place between Paul Magnette and Bart De Wever, the presidents of the two antagonized parties. On 10 February, Geens' assignment was prolonged for one week. In a sudden change of events, PS president Paul Magnette staunchly ruled out a coalition with N-VA on all media platforms of the country. Seeing his task as no longer purposeful, Geens returned to the King that evening and was relieved of his duties. On 16 February, Geens vehemently disapproved the PS' statements from Friday and blamed them for bringing the stability of the country in danger. On March 17, 2020, the Wilmès II Government government had its mandate extended, with external support from most parliamentary parties, in order to manage the coronavirus pandemic. Informal talks on forming a new government began in June of 2020. In June the government formation talk started again. King Philippe appointed the MR's, Open VLD's and CD&V's party leaders as informateurs.
Flemish government
On 12 August, N-VA released a starting note intended to form the basis of a continued governing coalition of N-VA, CD&V and Open Vld. Jan Jambon will likely become Minister-President. The government was not formed in time for the traditional "September Declaration", when the Minister-President gives a speech to the Flemish Parliament at the start of the parliamentary year.
A few days after the elections, the incumbent coalition of ProDG, SP and PFF agreed to continue governing. Oliver Paasch remained Minister-President. On Monday 17 June 2019, the four ministers took the oath in front of the Parliament of the German-speaking Community and the next day the Minister-President took the oath in front of King Philippe.
