Hahaha the government negotiations have broken down in Belgium, the Francophone centre-right hates the very idea of taxing capital gains.
This is good, the coalition under negotiation was centre-right, with the Flemish socialists Vooruit as the odd partner in there. But seems like the concessions they demanded were too much for French liberal MR.
Leaves open the possibility for a centrist grand coalition government.
But also for an even more right-wing government, without Vooruit but with Flemish liberal VLD. The reason this more natural coalition wasn't explored first is that it would be just a one seat majority, vulnerable to blackmail from any individual hardline MP. Also VLD lost big in the last elections and was looking forward to recovering in the opposition.
I think they still try the right-wing government first, since everyone hates grand coalitions. I like them for lack of anything better.
But with the local elections approaching, probably nothing happens until then.
@TheKorot I should correct the record on the supposed 494 days for the current government. That's an uncharitable way to count, since there was in fact an emergency government with the full confidence of Parliament in March or April 2020 (so less than a year after the May 2019 elections) to deal with the COVID crisis.
If that doesn't count, the various Italian "technical governments" also don't count :p
Diego
TheKorot