Belgium Moves into Political Terra Incognita

[Ambiorix]

Belgium Moves into Political Terra Incognita

http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/2733

From the desk of The Brussels Journal on Mon, 2007-12-03 21:11
A quote from Stratfor Intelligence, 3 December 2007

Belgium now formally moves into political no-man’s-land.

Since its deadlocked parliamentary elections six months ago, Belgium has been in political crisis, with the government of Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt limping along in a caretaker capacity. The plurality winners of that election – the Christian Democrats of Flanders, led by Yves Leterme – have proven unable to form a government because of disputes over how much power to devolve to the country's two fractionalized regions: Dutch Flanders in the North and French Wallonia in the South. Leterme informed the country’s head of state, King Albert II, of the situation Dec. 1, and now the country is awaiting a ruling on its future. […]

The next step in the process is entirely up to the king, and the options on his plate are not exactly palatable. The one that currently ranks highest in the public mind is for Verhofstadt’s caretaker government to be allowed to linger on until regional elections in 2009, which could alter the balance of power in the Belgian Senate – and thus in Parliament as a whole. Stratfor finds such an option odd, to say the least, because it would essentially mean pretending that the last elections never happened. The second and more likely option is for the king to simply declare a hung Parliament and call for fresh elections, with the hope of attaining a more workable result.

• Finally, he could present Parliament with a dissolution vote – but we find it dubious that the king is all that eager to see his country, and his job, legislated away.

 

A comment by Paul Belien:

• New elections would be unconstitutional as was reaffirmed last month

by Marc Bossuyt, Belgium’s new Chief Justice and they would not solve
anything as they are likely to lead to greater polarization between
Flanders and Wallonia.