Belgium moves towards provisional government

[Harold Schiffman]

Belgium moves towards provisional government
23 hours ago

BRUSSELS (AFP) — Belgium took a tentative step on Monday towards
forging a provisional government, six months after a general election
failed to yield new leadership in the linguistically divided country.
If agreed quickly, the interim cabinet could spare Belgium the
inglorious fate of setting a new European record in early January for
the longest period without a new government, topping the Netherlands'
best of 208 days in 1977. Belgian King Albert II tasked outgoing
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt "to inform him about rapidly
setting up an interim government to take care of urgent business," the
Royal Palace said in a statement. The monarch turned to Verhofstadt,
whose Flemish Liberals were defeated in a June 10 election, after
months of negotiations between Belgium's main political parties
collapsed on December 1.

The king also called on Verhofstadt to "start negotiations that should
lead to institutional reform," a touchy subject that has split
Belgium's bickering Dutch-speaking and French-speaking parties in
coalition talks. A spokesman for his Flemish Liberals, Tom Ongena,
said that "Verhofstadt will try to form an interim government," but
added that "it's up to the political parties to take a decision."
"Verhofstadt can be the prime minister but it's neither necessary nor
indispensable," he added. Although Verhofstadt's administration has
managed daily government business, public anger has been growing
recently over the political paralysis that has prevented work on more
new policy initiatives,

Belgium's three main unions are due to step up the pressure next
Saturday with a demonstration to call on a new government to tackle
problems, which include eroding purchasing power. Likewise, the
country's business community is increasingly alarmed about the toll
the political paralysis is having on the economy and the impact it
will have in the eyes of foreign investors. Under Belgium's federal
system, the government is led by a coalition made up of politicians
from the northern Dutch-speaking region of Flanders -- where about 60
percent of the population lives -- and the poorer southern
French-speaking half of Wallonia. Would-be prime minister Yves
Leterme, whose Flemish Christian Democrats came out on top in the June
vote, abandoned efforts on December 1 to form a centre-right coalition
with two Dutch-speaking and two French-speaking parties.

With tensions running high among the four parties so far in coalition
talks, Leterme has proposed to bring other parties into the
negotiations, including the Socialists. "After six months, it has to
be remarked that the (current) configuration is not yielding enough
confidence or guarantees, especially as regards modernising the
federal state," he said in an interview on Monday with French language
daily La Libre Belgique. The Flemish parties have refused to give up
their demands that more federal power be devolved to regional
authorities, which French-speakers fear would hit Wallonia financially
and could lead to the eventual break up of Belgium.

Leterme spilled oil on the fire over the weekend with an attack in
Flemish newspaper Het Belang van Limburg against the French-language
public broadcaster RTBF, likening it to a Rwandan radio station that
helped fuel that country's genocide. In an interview on Monday with
French-language daily La Libre Belgique, Leterme said he still
considered himself his party's candidate for prime minister.

http://afp.google.com/article/ALeqM5jniZnGslkxlijTQ5ao1KK1EF040g

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