Belgium could face another election if a coalition government isn’t formed in 50 days’ time, the leader of the French-speaking Socialist Party said late Monday.
“We have about 50 days to find a solution, failing which we will have to call a new election,” Paul Magnette said after the king tasked him with looking for possible coalition solutions, along with another party leader, Bart De Wever of the nationalist N-VA, the largest party in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders.
The current administration under Sophie Wilmès has been leading in a caretaker capacity after last year’s inconclusive election, but was given emergency powers for six months to see the country through the coronavirus crisis. But those powers are set to expire in September, giving the two party leaders about 50 days to try to reach a coalition deal or face the prospect of a new vote.
“During these 50 days, I will devote all my energy to the formation of a real government that has a real capacity to act,” said Magnette, also the mayor of Charleroi, in a video posted on Twitter Monday evening.
De Wever, also the mayor of Antwerp, said in his own Twitter video that he was accepting the challenge in a “very difficult” time because of the coronavirus crisis. He said the crisis “has shown that this country is institutionally totally broken.”
Paul Dallison contributed reporting.