Attempts to form government in Belgium fail again

Almost six months after the general elections, Belgium is still waiting for a new government and is now placing its hopes on the king, who is today expected to call upon the outgoing Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt to constitute a de facto emergency cabinet.

Flemish and Francophone negotiators failed again to form a government on 1 December due to unbridgeable positions on a programme of state reforms. Yves Leterme, the Flemish Christian democrat (CD&V) who had been asked to form a government and thus become Belgium’s new prime minister after general elections held in June, resigned from his mandate, a decision which was accepted by King Albert II. 

“I have tried everything possible”, Leterme said after the talks failed on 1 December. 

The King is currently seeing the incumbent Prime Minister Verhofstadt in order to grant him a mandate to head a special cabinet with extended powers, according to reports in the Belgian daily Het Laatste Nieuws, which have since been confirmed. 

Due to the new political situation, Mr Verhofstadt’s administration will now be able to take action on pressing issues such as the 2008 budget and socio-economic dossiers, Het Laatste Nieuws reports. 

In addition, he is also being charged with efforts to resolve inter-community wrangling between Flanders and Wallonia, the paper says. Verhofstadt is expected to pave the way for the establishment of a national convention, involving representatives of all the democratic parties as well as the regions, in order to address the issue of state reform.

Flemish Christian Democrats, liberals and nationalists all blamed Joelle Milquet’s Francophone Cdh’s refusal to move forward with state reforms for the failure of the most recent talks and kept insisting that Leterme should become the new prime minister. 

For their part, the francophone parties blamed the Flemîsh N-VA (News Flemish Alliance), the sister party of Leterme’s CD&V, for the failed talks. 

Mr Verhofstadt’s Flemish liberals and their Francophone counterparts led by Didier Reynders (MR, liberal) and Milquet have already made it clear that they also hope to work out a compromise with the Flemish Christian Democrats.

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