Belgium's survival in question as 'next PM' quits the battle
Divisions deepen in nation at the heart of Europe
Ian Traynor in Brussels
Sunday December 2, 2007
The Observer
Belgium's chances of surviving as a single country suffered a significant blow last night when the man tipped to be the next Prime Minister abandoned almost six months of bad-tempered wrangling over a new government and threw in the towel.
Yves Leterme, the Flemish Christian Democrat leader who emerged strongest from general elections in June, went to the royal palace in Brussels to tell King Albert he had had enough.
The King accepted Leterme's resignation, but left open the key question of what happens next in the effort to secure a consensus between the country's bitterly divided Dutch-speaking Flemish and francophone Walloon communities.
Leterme's resignation marked a watershed in the long-running crisis and shortened the odds on Belgium eventually splintering into two new countries at the heart of Europe - the bigger, more prosperous northern region of Flanders where the push for more autonomy is fuelling separatism, and the southern, less successful and smaller region of Wallonia, which is keener to preserve Belgium.
Since Leterme's electoral victory, there have been endless negotiations involving four parties of Flemish and Walloon Christian Democrats and Liberals.
Leterme issued an ultimatum on Friday, demanding answers to three questions from his putative coalition partners on the future. His demands focused on action to reform the federal structures of Belgium, appeasing Flemish separatism by granting greater powers to Flanders and weakening central government. His Christian Democrat counterparts in Wallonia baulked, triggering the Leterme resignation.
Last month Flemish MPs of all parties, bar one Green, dissolved the pact that has been the underlying basis of government in Belgium for decades, forcing a vote against the wishes of the francophone side and resorting to majority rule. Flanders is the bigger half of the country, with six million to Wallonia's 4.5 million.
While the Flemish side voted, the French-speaking side walked out of the chamber. The issue concerned the fate of three historically Flemish communities on the edge of Brussels. The vote stripped French-speakers of the right to vote for French-speaking parties in the three places.
The obscure dispute highlighted the absolute linguistic divide that reigns in Belgium outside Brussels, a French-speaking capital that bestrides the divide between the two communities but which is a Flemish city.
In Brussels, more than 20,000 people rallied on the streets a fortnight ago to profess their loyalty to a state called Belgium. But beyond the capital, particularly in Flanders, the mood is different.
Dutch and French speakers do not communicate with one another. They watch different TV stations, read different newspapers and send their children to different schools and universities. There are no national political parties. Leterme is a Christian Democrat but his proposals were rejected by Christian Democrats from the other side of the linguistic divide.
Through almost six months of negotiations, the Flemish side has insisted on further concessions to ethnic and linguistic autonomy as the price for forming a common government, concessions that further down the road will hasten the break-up of the country.
Leterme had been seeking a way out of the crisis by securing agreement on a coalition of technocratic managers who would run the country while a convention of constitutional reformers was charged with coming up with a new blueprint for Belgium within a year.
In addition to the extensive autonomy already exercised by the two regions, the Flemish side is demanding greater powers over taxation and social security, powers that would further impoverish Wallonia, impinge on national solidarity and probably hasten the slow-motion death of a country created by the great European powers in 1830.
