After the resignation announcement by Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel King Philippe probably will decide only on Wednesday, the corresponding request.
Before that, the monarch wants to meet after media reports in the course of the day only with the various party leaders to deliberations to explore the political possibilities. In Belgium, since a new parliament will be elected in May 2019 anyway, theoretically the king could again commission Michel to form a government for the next five months.
Michel, who leads the center-right coalition since 2014, had unexpectedly announced his resignation on Tuesday evening and handed the king his resignation. Shortly before, Social Democrats and Greens in Parliament had announced a motion of no confidence in Liberal Michel. With him, Michel should be asked to make policy changes within 48 hours.
The background of the announced resignation is a government crisis that has lasted for ten days. The nationalist regional party N-VA from the Flemish-speaking north of the country had left the government one and a half weeks ago because the francophone Michel (42) wanted to travel to Marrakech to endorse the controversial UN migration pact. The N-VA was by far the largest coalition partner of the center-right coalition.
Michel then went on with a minority government. However, his liberal reform movement (Mouvement Réformateur / MR), together with the Flemish Liberals Open VLD and the Christian Democrats (CD & V), had only 52 of the 150 parliamentary seats. An early election rejected Michel, since in May 2019 in Belgium anyway elected.
On Tuesday, Michel had still tried to avert a threatening motion of censure in parliament. According to the Belgian news agency Belga, he campaigned for a „goodwill coalition“ to continue government work until the elections on 26 May. He proposed a roadmap based on three priorities: purchasing power, safety and climate protection. So Michel wanted to convince the opposition parties to give the governing coalition in the next six months majorities. The Greens and the Social Democrats were apparently not enough.
