After De Wever offered his resignation Monday morning, the palace said the king was “postponing his decision” and “will begin consultations tomorrow with the party leaders of the various coalition partners.” It added that the king “is appealing to everyone’s sense of responsibility and urges all stakeholders to prioritize the general interest and a spirit of compromise.”

The prime minister is expected to meet the king again on Friday.

De Wever had ruled out starting the new year with a temporary budget, which would let the government continue with the same budget as last year’s.

Budget talks have been ongoing for weeks, with tensions emerging mostly between the Flemish socialists of Forward and the Francophone center-right Reformist Movement.

The former asked for more contributions from the highest incomes, through taxes, while the latter ruled that out and pushed back against a wider reform of value-added tax.

There were still “far too many taxes on the table,” David Clarinval, deputy prime minister for the Reformist Movement, told reporters when talks broke up. He didn’t rule out discussions resuming today.