Prime Minister skips opening session as budget deadlock fuels opposition ire

The 2026 parliamentary year opened without Prime Minister Bart De Wever, who repeated his decision from the previous year to skip the plenary session because no budget had been agreed. The president of the Chamber noted the government had indicated there would be no State of the Union address. Socialist group leader Pierre-Yves Dermange blasted both De Wever's method and the government's policy, linking the absence to ongoing street protests.

PTB leader Raoul Hedebouw suggested the prime minister feared the pressure from the streets, while Ecolo's Sarah Schlitz likened the no-show to a student missing exams. Opposition leader Alexia Bertrand warned that the lack of an agreement could force a return to provisional twelfth-month budgets, and Défi deputy François De Smet called for creative solutions to break the stalemate. A request to summon the finance minister was rejected by a simple majority vote.