Day 541, at last

Belgium has at last a new government, after 541 days of negotiations since the parliamentary elections of the 13th of June 2010.

It is a coalition of six parties: French-speaking socialists (PS, 26 seats of the 150 in the Lower house), French-speaking liberals (MR, 18 seats), Flemish christian democrats (CD&V, 17), Flemish socialists (SP.A, 13), Flemish liberals (OpenVDL, 13) and French-speaking christian democrats (CDH, 9). Together they have  a large majority of 96 seats. There is some critic in Flanders that the three Flemish parties taken together fall short (43 seats) of the majority of the Flemish seats (88) in the Lower House, although this is not a legal obligation.

The new prime minister is Elio di Rupo, the mayor of the city of Mons in Hainaut province near the French border, and since 1999 the president of the PS. He is the son of an Italian immigrant from the Abbruzzi mountains an was already deputy prime minister between 1994 and 1999. He was a member of the EP between 1989 and 1991 before he started his carreer in national Belgian politics. Mr. di Rupo is 60 and is learning to speak Dutch, but there is criticism in Flanders on his poor command of that language. He is the first prime minister from the French-speaking parties of the country since 1974, and the first socialist in that function since then.

Mr. di Rupo succeeded where others failed in forming a government. The breakthrough came on September the 15th when he reached an agreement on the thorny issue of the status of the bilingual electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. After that he achieved a global institutional agreement in october and an agreement on budgetary cuts in 2012 for an amount of the equivalent of 3 % of  gdp.

Yesterday the new cabinet was formed, again after night long negotiations that started at 5.30 pm on Sunday afternoon and lasted 24 hours without interruption. There are 13 ministers and 6 underministers. Most ministers are the same personalities as in the previous government, but generally on different posts. No MEP will enter the new government.

 

The Flemish nationalists are now the main opposition. In French-speaking Belgium the greens are the only opposition, but they are ready to give the government the needed two thirds majority to vote the institutional agreement.

 

It is still to early to say anything reasonable about the stability of this new government, although most observers agree that the bad opinion polls of last weekend should strengthen the will to remain together some time.

 

 

YES, a new government

Negotiators for a new Belgian government have finally achieved a definite agreement for a new government. It took 535 days to get that far, a world- and probably intergalactic-record. The new cabinet could take up its task next Monday, the 5th of December, day 540 after the elections of the 13th of June 2010.
The message was sent out shortly after 9 pm on Wednesday evening: the six negotiating parties (liberals, socialists and christian democrats of both communities of Belgium) around 'formateur' Elio di Rupo had agreed on a text of 185 pages (another record), the agreement that will command the actions of the next federal government.

Reactions on the final agreement were mitigated. There was much relief that finally there will be again a government in full. But there was much confusion and already some angry reactions about the budget cuts. 

The negotiators met today again to do the second lecture. They were expected to finish this evening. At that time a day of union protests will start against the measures the negotiators adopted last weekend about cuts for an amount of 11,3 bn € in the budget of 2012 and about reforms of the pension and unemployment system.
In the weekend party congresses will vote on the agreement, so that from sunday evening onwards di Rupo can start with the composition of his first government. Somewhere Monday the new ministers will go to the Royal Palace in Laken to swear their oath in front of King Albert.

The absolute world record of 540 days to form a government (the previous one was in the hands of Iraq with some 280 days) is prove that Belgium has become so divided that it is extremely difficult to govern it, especially in difficult times all over Europe.  But it is also true that at the end a majority of politicians was found to go at extreme length (540 days) to keep that country, if not alive, at least afloat.