Belgian Prime Minister Charles Michel was left at the helm of a minority government after the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) on Sunday quit the ruling coalition over his support of a UN migration pact.
The N-VA, the largest of the coalition’s four parties, had earlier threatened to leave if Michel backed the accord.
Belgium’s King Philippe accepted the resignations of the N-VA’s ministers after meeting with Michel at the royal palace, according to a statement.
Michel also presented the king with the list of replacements for the departing ministers in the interior, finance, defense and migration portfolios.
With the departure of the party, Michel lacks a parliamentary majority with five months to go before legislative elections scheduled for late May.
“I regret that it has come to this,” Michel told the RTL-TVI television channel.
He said that a “responsible coalition” had been set up and called for “dialogue with parliament,” warning of a looming risk of early elections, which he said could “stymie the country for a year.”
Addressing a news conference later in the day, Michel said the weakened government’s three priorities would be purchasing power, security and climate policy.
Belgian Minister of the Interior Jan Jambon, an N-VA member, had confirmed earlier on Sunday that he and the party’s other ministers would step down.
“It’s clear,” he told national broadcaster RTBF, following hours of uncertainty.
The draft UN accord lays down 23 objectives to open up legal migration and better manage a global flow of 250 million people — more than 3 percent of the world population.
The pact was approved in July by all 193 member nations except the US, which backed out last year.
Countries including Italy, Hungary, Austria, Poland, Bulgaria, Slovakia and Australia have since rejected it.
Belgium’s coalition government, in power for four years, has often been riven over the N-VA’s position on migration.
Belgian Minister of Health Maggie de Block, who is to take on the migration portfolio replacing the N-VA’s Theo Francken, said she would pursue “a new strict, but fair” migration policy.
“I am taking on a department in crisis. It’s chaos,” she said in a statement.
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