Flanders has a new government

The lead negotiators on forming a new government in Belgium’s Flanders region sealed a coalition agreement early Saturday after months of negotiations.

The representatives of the Social Democratic Vooruit, the Christian Democrats of the CD&V and the conservatives of N-VA announced the coalition pact for the Belgium’s northern region after talks concluded at 5 a.m. They had been negotiating since the regional election on June 9.

“We looked for a creative way to bring the different parties together and I think we were very successful,” Matthias Diependaele of N-VA, who chaired the negotiations, said after the negotiations, according to RTL info.

The negotiators will present the coalition agreement to their parties in the coming days.

“We have finally reached an agreement for a new, better and more social Flanders government, with a lot of good news in our education, in health, in affordable living,” said Conner Rousseau, leader of Vooruit, on Instagram.

One day earlier, on Friday morning at 5:15 a.m., negotiations had stalled after 17 hours of talks over disagreements regarding budget, the use of headscarves in public services and classrooms, the reduction of MPs in the Flemish parliament, the re-introduction of mandatory voting, and the abolition of the five provinces in the Flanders region.  

The distribution of ministerial portfolios is expected at the end of next week.