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Marriage of Convenience

DW staff (ncy)December 24, 2007

Half a year after parliamentary elections, Belgium finally has a new government. Acting Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt won a vote of confidence in parliament to lead the divided country -- until Easter.

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Belgium's Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt
Verhofstadt lost the vote, but he's still been charged with running the governmentImage: AP

Belgium's parliament backed Verhofstadt to head the interim government by a margin of 97 to 46 in an extraordinary session on Sunday, Dec. 23. The acting Prime Minister is expected to hand over the reins to election-winner Yves Leterme, on March 23, who has been unable to create a coalition between Dutch-speaking Flemish and French-speaking Walloon parties.

"We face a huge challenge," said Verhofstadt, who has become the country's most popular politician in the more than six months since he lost the June 10 election.

Verhofstadt will have to deal with a number of urgent problems that were neglected during the political crisis that lamed the country, including drafting a budget for 2008.

Map of Belgium
French-speaking Wallonie is poorer than FlandersImage: AP Graphics Bank/Wolf Broszies

His government will be made up of his Flemish liberal party VLD, its Walloon sister party MR, the Walloon socialist party PS, Leterme's Flemish Christian democratic party CD&V and its Walloon equivalent, CdH. The Flemish nationalist NV-A, which had been instrumental in blocking the formation of a coalition, will not be part of the interim government.


"Marriage of convenience"

Meanwhile, the country's biggest parties aim to reach a consensus on how the Flemish and Walloons can work together in the future.


Yves Leterme
Leterme has been very unluckyImage: AP

The Flemish want more autonomy for Flanders, in the north of Belgium. The Walloons fear that would result in fewer subsides for their poorer southern part of the country.

Verhofstadt, who has been Belgium's prime minister for eight years, called on the Flemish and Walloon liberal and Christian democratic parties to come to an agreement.

"Sometimes love is particularly enduring when it's a marriage of convenience," the DPA news agency quoted him as saying.