BELGIAN LEADERS have achieved their first big breakthrough in 460 days of stalemate over the formation of a new government.
Although many issues remain to be resolved in the negotiation between eight linguistically divided parties, they reached a deal on Wednesday night to settle an arcane dispute over the organisation of electoral districts in the outskirts of Brussels.
Budget talks will not begin until this day week but local analysts say the stage is now set for French-speaking socialist leader Elio Di Rupo to become prime minister in about a month.
The next phase of the negotiation will be no walkover, however. The parties are trying to achieve €7 billion in savings to bring the budget deficit within EU limits.
Mr Di Rupo shared the spoils in the June 2010 election with Flemish separatist Bart de Wever, who campaigned on a separatist agenda for the Dutch-speaking part of the country.
Even though Mr de Wever’s New Flemish Alliance party emerged with the biggest vote in the election, he is no longer involved in the power-sharing talks.
The agreement on Wednesday capped a dramatic series of events in which the talks broke down yet again in the hours after acting prime minister Yves Leterme declared he was leaving politics to pursue a job in Paris with the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.
Amid mounting fear the prolonged stalemate could lead to the break-up of the country, Mr Leterme’s demarche was derided in political circles. This prompted King Albert II to make a hasty return to Brussels from holidays in France on a military aircraft.
Almost 15 months of fruitless talks have raised questions about the viability of the unitary Belgian state, in which prosperous Flanders to the north of the country subsidises the comparatively poorer French-speaking region of Wallonia.
Mr Leterme has held office in a caretaker capacity since April last year, when long-festering divisions over voting rights in the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) electoral area shattered his five-party government.
Le Soir,the French-language daily, greeted the settlement of this dispute with a simple banner headline on its front page, "The Reprieve". Mr de Wever's advance in the election sent shockwaves through the country's political establishment, in which he is regarded as an outsider.
The talks that followed were barbed, as both sides refused to yield in disputes over constitutional, financial and electoral reforms.
When the negotiation broke down after 18 hours of talks on Monday, Mr Di Rupo issued a statement saying the talks were “profoundly blocked”. Calling for a final attempt to bridge the gap, he suggested the future of the country was at stake.
In diplomatic circles, the deal to resolve the BHV question is perceived to reflect concern that the sovereign debt crisis could spread to Belgium if the country’s bickering leaders did not soon resolve their differences.
The BHV agreement is perceived to favour the Flemish side of the debate, but French-speaking leaders fear any further delay in the talks would play into Mr de Wever’s hand.
