Koning accepteert ontslag Belgische premier (en)
Belgium's King Albert II has accepted the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme i, raising the spectre of national elections just weeks before the country is scheduled to take over the EU's rotating presidency on 1 July.
Mr Leterme tendered his resignation on Thursday after the Flemish Liberal (Open VLD) party pulled out of his ruling coalition government, the long-running squabble revolving round the linguistic status of suburbs surrounding Brussels.
The king subsequently asked deputy prime minister Didier Reynders, a French-speaker, to find a compromise solution, but on Monday (26 April) Mr Reynders asked to be relieved of the task, prompting the king to accept Mr Leterme's resignation.
"I regret that the necessary dialogue to achieve a negotiated settlement did not produce the result we hoped for," Mr Leterme, a Flemish Christian Democrat, said in a statement.
Options now include the possibility of a new coalition, with talks taking place this week, or fresh elections, with June the earliest possible date under Belgian constitutional rules.
Mr Leterme will stay on in a caretaker capacity until a solution is found, but analysts say the current impasse is particularly acute, going beyond Belgium's storied history of linguistic disputes between the nation's French and Dutch speaking politicians.
For a period of nine months in 2007, the country was left effectively without a government after politicians were unable to form a coalition following elections.
Open VLD's exit from the coalition last week was prompted by frustration over the government's failure to solve the dispute between the French-speaking and Dutch-speaking communities in the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoord electoral district.
A proposed controversial new law would remove the special voting rights of minority French-speakers in the area, with a vote on the matter set to take place this Thursday in parliament.
EU presidency, debt pile
As well as the perceived gravity, the timing of the latest imbroglio is far from ideal, with Belgium scheduled to take over reins of the EU's rotating six-month presidency in little over two months' time.
Holders of the presidency are charged with organising and chairing the majority of the EU's many meetings between member state officials, essential to the smooth operation of the European Union.
Privately, EU officials concede they do not relish the prospect of more uncertainty, with the collapse of the Czech government during the country's presidency in the first half of 2009 resulting in considerable confusion.
The country's growing debt pile, roughly equal to the country's annual GDP, has also been singled out as another clear reason why a stable government is essential at the current juncture.
Unforeseen economic developments could place considerable strain on the country's bond market if no finance minister were in place, Carsten Brzeski, senior economist with Dutch bank ING told EUobserver last week.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Mark Eyskens told the national media: "If we have a deep political crisis, we could find ourselves in a similar position to Greece. We have a debt of over 100 percent [of GDP] that we must finance."
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