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Eight months after the June 2024 election, Belgium finally has a new government, led by the right-wing New Flemish Alliance (Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie, N-VA) party. Attempts to form other coalitions, without the N-VA which had won the election, failed. That effort resembled the case of Austria, in which three months of attempting to form an alliance against the Freedom Party of Austria (FPÖ), which had won the September election there, also failed. Now, the new Austrian government is expected to be led by the Freedom Party.

Belgium’s N-VA, among other things, is seeking more autonomy for the economically stronger Flemish part of the country. It is chaired by Bart de Wever, the Mayor of Antwerp, who will also become Prime Minister at the top of a five-party coalition—the other four parties being the liberal Reformist Movement (MR) party from French-speaking Wallonia; the Christian Democrats from both parts of the country; and the Flemish Social Democrats—comprising the so-called Arizona Coalition. The name comes about because the parties’ colors match those of Arizona’s state flag in the U.S., (yellow, orange, blue and red).