Belgium marks 100 days of no new government

By Ben Nimmo Sep 18, 2007, 9:58 GMT

Brussels - In most democracies, the 100th day after the election of a new government is a time to take stock of the administration's progress.

In Belgium on Tuesday, the media celebrated the opposite: 100 days of no new government.

'A hundred days have passed since the elections of June 10. And still there's no government in sight,' French-language daily La Libre Belgique proclaimed in a banner headline surrounded by stick-figure tallies adding up to the magic number.

'100 days of crisis: two out of three Flemish speakers think that Belgium will split up,' Flemish-language Het Laatste Nieuws proclaimed.

The Belgian political scene is nothing if not complex. The kingdom of 10.5 million is organized as a federation between the majority Flemish-speaking population in the wealthy north of the country, and the minority French-speakers in the poorer south.

The ethnic situation is further complicated by the fact that the federal capital, Brussels, is a majority French-speaking area, but lies in Flemish-speaking Flanders.

After the June 10 elections saw voters reject the outgoing administration of Guy Verhofstadt, tensions between the ethnic groups overshadowed coalition talks between French and Flemish parties.

The Flemish negotiators demanded that the federal state cede some of its powers to the regions. French-speaking leaders rejected the idea as a covert attempt to cut federal funding to their province, and in August the talks were suspended.

Since talks broke down, practically every media outlet in Belgium has asked whether the federal state can survive.

One weekly gossip magazine even ran the front-page caption, '10 reasons why Belgium is impossible.'

But most opinion polls have so far shown that the people of Belgium are less worried about the future of their country than the politicians and media suppose.

'It's just politicians playing games - I can't see Belgium ceasing to exist any time soon,' this correspondent's neighbour said while reading the morning papers.

'Anyway, it's been a hundred days and the country's still working fine. They have to form a government soon, otherwise they'll realise we don't need them,' she added.