Belgian would-be premier gives up on government talks

Sep 4, 2010, 1:44 GMT

 Brussels - Belgium was thrown into political turmoil on Friday as seven-party talks on forming a government collapsed and the man leading the negotiations asked to be relieved of his mission for the second time in a week.   

   Elections on June 13 saw diametrically opposed forces winning the strongest mandates in the northern, Dutch-speaking province of Flanders and the southern, French-speaking province of Wallonia. Politicians have been trying since to get the two sides to agree on a government programme.    

   On Friday, the man tasked with leading the talks, French-speaking Socialist Elio di Rupo, asked King Albert II to be relieved of his mission, according to a statement from the palace.

   But the king was 'withholding his decision' on whether to accept the move pending 'consultations' with political leaders, the palace added.    

'I insisted with the king that, after this period, I really be discharged from the task,' Di Rupo said in a press conference.

   The Socialist leader, who had been leading coalition-building efforts since July 8, had already offered to resign last weekend. But then, Albert II ordered him to soldier on.

Negotiations centre on conflicting demands for power, influence and funding between wealthier Flanders and poorer Wallonia.

   The strongest party in Flanders, the N-VA, wants Belgium's status as a federal state to be replaced with a loose confederation, a move which would give more power and money to Flanders.

   Di Rupo offered the N-VA a transfer of competences from federal to regional governments worth 15 billion euros (19.3 billion dollars), and to launch a reform of the law on government financing.

'All conditions were there for the centre of gravity to shift from the federal state to the federated entities,' he said.    

But the N-VA, backed by the more moderate CD&V, balked at parallel requests to give Brussels - an independent, bilingual region within Flanders, whose population is largely French-speaking - a fixed subsidy to patch up its chronic budget deficit.

Di Rupo initially suggested a 500-million-euro yearly handout, then cut his proposal in half, to 250 million euros.

'I acknowledged with sadness that two parties could not accept the last proposals I put on the table,' he said.

'We need to start again,' said N-VA leader Bart De Wever, indicating he could not accept a permanent handout for Brussels while the reform of government financing still needed to be agreed upon.

'I think I have done what was possible,' he added. De Wever indicated he was ready to accept only a 'temporary' subsidy 'for 2011 and maybe even for 2012.'

Adding to the stalemate, parties also have to agree on the division of the Brussels-Hal-Vilvoorde (BHV) electoral district, a long-standing controversy that caused the collapse of the outgoing government led by Yves Leterme.

'It is all a package that needs to be judged as a whole,' Di Rupo noted.    

The political crisis leaves Belgium deprived of effective government. Meanwhile, the country's six-month-long presidency of the European Union is being steered by Leterme and his caretaker administration.