inane and slightly ridiculous news from europe - V

whew...made it my first weekend without missing a post...

belgium near 5 months without government

by the associated press
published: november 5, 2007

brussels, belgium (ap) -- belgium heads for a record tuesday -- 149 days with no government -- unless the two winners of this year's elections suddenly resolve linguistic spats deadlocking their bid to form an alliance.

nearly five months after the vote, yves leterme, 47, the would-be christian democratic premier, has only a partial government program in hand.

the christian democrat and liberal parties are still in disagreement over three issues: the economy, more self-rule for dutch-speaking flanders and francophone wallonia, and the scope of a brussels-area voting district that a court declared illegal in 2003.

the latter two issues have been highly divisive in this nation of 6 million dutch-speakers and 4.5 million francophones, even leading to calls for an independent flanders.

leterme held one-on-one talks over the weekend with his would-be coalition partners but with no resolution.

there is no deadline for forming a government, but the deadlock could lead some politicians to break from the effort and force the king to appoint a different prime minister-designate for new negotiations.

angered by the slow pace of leterme's negotiations, flemish politicians plan to vote on wednesday in the parliament's home affairs commission to split up the brussels voting district. such a vote may cause francophone politicians to leave the leterme's talks altogether.

joelle milquet, head of the french-speaking christian democrats, warned that francophones would see such a vote by the flemish ''as an act of hostility'' and quit the government talks.
the previous record for belgium having no government was set in 1988, when the premier at the time, wilfried martens, needed 148 days to form a coalition.

belgium was transformed into a three-region federation in the 1980s, comprising flanders, wallonia and officially bilingual brussels, the belgian capital.

the problem with the bilingual voting district is that it extends beyond belgium's bilingual capital into part of dutch-speaking flanders. in 2003, the constitutional court said that was illegal, but belgian politicians have ignored the ruling for four years.

leterme has been appealing for national unity. his christian democrats and the liberals together won 81 seats in june 10 elections -- a comfortable majority in the 150-seat lower-house of parliament.

''it's time for government negotiators to assume their responsibility in the national interest,'' he said friday. ''it's time to stop mutual provocations.''

but agreement has been complicated also by flemish demands for more self-rule. francophone politicians argue that enough powers have devolved to flanders and wallonia in the last 25 years, and they accuse flanders of abusing its economic sway over poorer wallonia to seek the demise of belgium.

''we want to continue with reforming the state, but not if that means heading for a divorce,'' says didier reynders, the outgoing finance minister and head of the francophone liberals. ''they (dutch-speakers) need to make that clear at long last.''

while leterme continues his negotiations, the outgoing center-left government of prime minister guy verhofstadt continues in office in a caretaker capacity.

why don't they just do what we do when we can't officially declare a winner in a vote and have bush run belgium (into the ground) as well...