BRUSSELS (AFP) — Belgium took a tentative step on Monday towards forging a provisional government, six months after a general election failed to yield new leadership in the linguistically divided country.
If agreed quickly, the interim cabinet could spare Belgium the inglorious fate of setting a new European record in early January for the longest period without a new government, topping the Netherlands' best of 208 days in 1977.
Belgian King Albert II tasked outgoing Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt "to inform him about rapidly setting up an interim government to take care of urgent business," the Royal Palace said in a statement.
The monarch turned to Verhofstadt, whose Flemish Liberals were defeated in a June 10 election, after months of negotiations between Belgium's main political parties collapsed on December 1.
The king also called on Verhofstadt to "start negotiations that should lead to institutional reform," a touchy subject that has split Belgium's bickering Dutch-speaking and French-speaking parties in coalition talks.
A spokesman for his Flemish Liberals, Tom Ongena, said that "Verhofstadt will try to form an interim government," but added that "it's up to the political parties to take a decision."
"Verhofstadt can be the prime minister but it's neither necessary nor indispensable," he added.
Although Verhofstadt's administration has managed daily government business, public anger has been growing recently over the political paralysis that has prevented work on more new policy initiatives,
Belgium's three main unions are due to step up the pressure next Saturday with a demonstration to call on a new government to tackle problems, which include eroding purchasing power.
Likewise, the country's business community is increasingly alarmed about the toll the political paralysis is having on the economy and the impact it will have in the eyes of foreign investors.
Under Belgium's federal system, the government is led by a coalition made up of politicians from the northern Dutch-speaking region of Flanders -- where about 60 percent of the population lives -- and the poorer southern French-speaking half of Wallonia.
Would-be prime minister Yves Leterme, whose Flemish Christian Democrats came out on top in the June vote, abandoned efforts on December 1 to form a centre-right coalition with two Dutch-speaking and two French-speaking parties.
With tensions running high among the four parties so far in coalition talks, Leterme has proposed to bring other parties into the negotiations, including the Socialists.
"After six months, it has to be remarked that the (current) configuration is not yielding enough confidence or guarantees, especially as regards modernising the federal state," he said in an interview on Monday with French language daily La Libre Belgique.
The Flemish parties have refused to give up their demands that more federal power be devolved to regional authorities, which French-speakers fear would hit Wallonia financially and could lead to the eventual break up of Belgium.
Leterme spilled oil on the fire over the weekend with an attack in Flemish newspaper Het Belang van Limburg against the French-language public broadcaster RTBF, likening it to a Rwandan radio station that helped fuel that country's genocide.
In an interview on Monday with French-language daily La Libre Belgique, Leterme said he still considered himself his party's candidate for prime minister.
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