July 10, 2007
Still waiting for a Belgian government
Just reading about the efforts to form a Belgian federal government, which rumble on a mere 22 days after the general election.
Odd? Not really. Apparently it once took 150 days to thrash out a deal for a coalition government in linguistically-divided Belgium, which has zealously carved up the national state and developed a fiendishly complicated political system.
The last time I looked there were, I think, either eight or nine parliaments (in a country the size of Maryland) but who knows - someone might since have slipped in another chamber for good measure.
Anyway, they’ve brought in a bruiser - ex prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene - to try to break the deadlock between the parties over the federal government, with Yves Leterme, a Christian Democrat, still seen as likely to become the next premier.
In the meantime, outgoing prime minister Guy Verhofstadt continues as caretaker leader.
Who knows when they’ll find agreement? Apparently national day (July 21) could pass without a new government. Then there’s the summer break, when Brussels all but shuts down.
Mind you, if people are worried about all this, they’re hardly showing it. The splash and pages 2-5 of Le Soir newspaper today are dedicated to the Tour de France…
‘in a country the size of Maryland’
Living, as I and most of your readers do, in Europe, I am unfamiliar with the size and population of what I just happen to know to be a state in the US.
I just looked it up on Wikipedia and found that though the area might be similar, the population is half that of Belgium.
So, this seems to be an extremely poor analogy on at least two counts.
Moving on, and glossing over your proudly-worn ignorance (there are in fact 7 parliaments, one federal and one each for the regions and language communities, rather than the ‘eight or nine’ you spuriously, and oh so humerously, claim) long coalition negotiations are not uncommon in countries operating a proportional voting system (cf. Holland, Italy, Israel, etc.)
In short, this seems to be a lazy and frankly rubbish ‘ha ha isn’t Belgium funny’ article, written by someone who’s cultural yardstick extends no further than the Eastern seabord of the continental USA.
It seems much more interesting to me, and worthy of some investigation, that the Belgian ‘Christian Democrat’ party you mention in passing have rebranded themselves as humanists in a move to be more inclusive. If it pays off in terms of their representation in the new government, maybe it will be repeated elsewhere?
Posted by: E Djones | July 11th, 2007 at 12:08 pm | Report this commentI agree partly with Djones, although I have to correct him on the number of parliaments in Belgium. Already in 1980 the Flemish region and language community decided to merge their parliaments, so in fact there are only 6 parliaments in Belgium.
Posted by: Emmanuel Crollen | August 9th, 2007 at 9:06 pm | Report this comment