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Belgium Is Falling Apart
| Good [+1]Toggle ReplyLink» nothingnopenope replied on Sun Dec 9, 2007 @ 10:49pm |
 Coolness: 201370 | After six months, Belgium still stuck in political mire
1 day ago BRUSSELS (AFP) — Belgium marks on Monday six months without a new government and the prospects of a solution appear dim despite the return of the outgoing prime minister to the political scene and the population's growing impatience. At the time of the June 10 general election, Belgians knew that it would be no easy task for the country's often-bickering Dutch and French-speaking parties to form a government. But few expected the linguistically divided country to be still without a new government six months afterwards with the prospect that Belgium could one day split up looming ever larger in the background. Already on November 6, Belgium broke its previous record of 148 days for the longest period without a new government. Now it looks likely that it will set a new record in Europe in early January, topping the Netherlands record of 208 days set back in 1977. Since June, Dutch-speaking Flemish Christian Democrats and their partners have been struggling to hammer out a centre-right coalition with French-speaking liberals and centrists, but with little success. The Flemish parties are insisting that more power should be handed down to regional governments, a prospect the French-speaking parties see as both a political and financial threat. After failing to get the French-speakers behind his plans, Flemish Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme abandoned his efforts to form a government on December 1, plunging Belgium deeper into crisis. Afterwards Belgium's King Albert II handed outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt, whose Flemish liberals were defeated in June, the unenviable task of pulling the country out of the political mire. In the face of the deadlock, the most likely scenario is that the outgoing Socialist-Liberal coalition, which has so far only been tending to day-to-day business, will remain in place for some time yet. In ministerial cabinets, officials who until recently expected they would have to leave are getting out the big files again from the boxes where they have been stashed away for months. Meanwhile, public anger is growing over the political establishment's seemingly interminable quarrels. Belgium's three main unions are due to step up the pressure next Saturday when they are scheduled to hold a demonstration to call on a new government to tackle problems such as eroding purchasing power. Similar calls for pragmatic solutions to everyday problems are also being heard from emergency services, police, prison and firefighting personnel, who are demanding more staff. 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. December 13 will mark one year since French-speaking state-owned television channel RTBF sparked an uproar by airing a spoof news flash pretending that Flanders had unilaterally seceded from Belgium. While the spectre of Belgium breaking up was distant then, a year later it is looming much larger. Update » nothingnopenope wrote on Sun Dec 9, 2007 @ 10:51pm Scott's super happy footnotes: The EU headquarters is in Brussels! Wouldn't it be ironic for the EU's headquarters to be in a country that may soon separate along cultural/linguistic lines! |
| I'm feeling gangsta right now.. | |
Belgium Is Falling Apart
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