BELGIUM: PM Resigns, Flemish Nationalists & Liberals Set To Lead Gov't Talks

The 9 June legislative elections delivered such a blow to Belgian PM Alexander De Croo's Dutch-speaking liberal Open VLD party that he stated he would resign once a new majority coalition has been formed. The big winners of the election were the Flemish nationalist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA), which retained its plurality, and the liberal centre-right Reformist Movement (MR), which overtook the centre-left Socialists as the largest Francophone party. 

• The seven-party coalition led by De Croo retained its majority by the narrowest of margins, with 76 seats in the 150-member chamber. However, the scale of losses for the Francophone Socialist Party, De Croo's Open VLD, and both Dutch and French-speaking green parties means reforming the group as-is could prove difficult. 
• While N-VA has sat as part of the federal gov't before, it has never done so as the largest party. N-VA leader Bart De Wever is in pole position to become PM. 
• Unlike the far-right separatist Vlaams Belang - which scored it its best-ever result, but still underperformed polling - N-VA does not support unilateral separation of Flanders from Wallonia. Instead, it backs the shifting of many responsibilities of the federal gov't to the regional gov'ts of Flanders, Wallonia, and Brussels.
• MR head Georges-Louis Bouchez has said he could envisage working with the N-VA. While the two parties differ on policies with regards to state competencies, both are economically conservative and favour efforts to bolster state finances in the face of a widening budget deficit.