BRUSSELS: Almost 500 days after Belgian parliamentary elections, seven parties from both sides of the linguistic aisle have agreed on forming a fully functioning majority government that will center on dealing with the pandemic and its devastating economic impact.
A final negotiating session that lasted almost 24 hours found agreement on a common budget and had only one issue left to decide: who would succeed Sophie Wilmes as prime minister. The seven parties consist of Liberals, Socialists and Greens, divided into separate linguistic entities, and the Dutch-speaking Christian Democrats.
The big political hurdles are behind us and I am happy we were able to forge a program with seven partners, said Christian Democrat negotiator Servais Verherstraeten.
Led by Dutch-speaking Liberal Alexander De Croo and francophone Socialist Paul Magnette, the parties found money to fund new…