BELGIUM:LINGUISTICALLY-DIVIDED Belgium is once more in political chaos after the prime minister, Yves Leterme, tendered his resignation over talks on reforming the Belgian state, writes Honor Mahony.
Mr Leterme offered his resignation to the king late on Monday night just ahead of a deadline to work out a constitutional reform deal between the parties that make up his fractious coalition.
The Flemish prime minister said it was "impossible to bridge" the differences between the parties from the wealthier and more populous Flanders in the north and those from the poorer French-speaking Wallonia in the south.
Upon waking yesterday morning, Belgians were treated to the familiar sight of dire newspaper headlines, finger-pointing statements from politicians and speculation about what the continuing bad blood between the French- and Dutch-speaking political communities means for the small country's future.
The coalition has only been in place since March. Before that, Belgium spent an unprecedented nine months in a state of uncertainty following the general election last summer.
Mr Leterme managed to secure basic agreement on budgetary, social and economic issues between the parties. But he could not make headway on giving more self-rule to the regions or on the high-profile dispute concerning electoral boundaries on the bilingual outskirts of majority-French Brussels which, complicating matters, lies in Flanders.
This is the third time that he has failed to forge a deal since his Christian Democrats won the majority in the June 2007 elections.
Flemish parties are pushing for regional powers on taxation and some social security issues, and more autonomy in areas such as transport and health.
But their French-speaking counterparts fear this will spell the end of the country where already the two communities have so little contact with each other aside from language - their political, cultural and social references are worlds apart.
Francophone fears are compounded by hardline Flemish parties, one of which, the New Flemish Alliance, is an ally of Mr Leterme's party. These openly favour a break-up of Belgium which gained independence from the Netherlands in 1830.
The king has not yet formally accepted Mr Leterme's resignation which means the government is now in a caretaker position while the palace conducting emergency talks with politicians - discussions that may take some days.
Options open to the king include: dissolving parliament and calling an election; forcing the prime minister to stay on and find a solution; or appointing someone else in the Leterme government to try their luck.