Belgium plunged into political crisis on Thursday as Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme threw in the towel — for the third time — after a key Flemish party quit his coalition government.
The situation was in flux, however, as the king delayed a decision on whether to accept Laterme’s resignation saying a political crisis would “seriously threaten” Belgium’s role in Europe two months before the country assumes the EU presidency.
Flemish Christian democrat Leterme informed King Albert II of his decision to quit, after just five months at the helm, from the job he inherited from predecessor Herman Van Rompuy who left to become the first EU president.
Leterme’s decision was forced when his Flemish liberal allies, the Open VLD, quit the five-party coalition on Thursday over a long-running row between the country’s Dutch-speaking and francophone communities over electoral rules in flashpoint suburbs of Brussels.
Party president Alexander De Croo told reporters: “The Open VLD has lost confidence in the government.”
Leterme “presented the resignation of his government,” said a palace statement. “The king is withholding his decision.”
“The king and the prime minister underlined how unfortunate it would be, in the current circumstances, to be drawn into a political crisis,” it said.
Such an outcome, it added, “would seriously threaten on the one hand the economic and social well-being of its citizens and on the other hand Belgium’s role at a European level.”
The political crisis also made it unlikely that Belgian lawmakers would hold a much-anticipated vote on Thursday on imposing a ban on wearing the Islamic burqa in public.
“There was no other choice but for the government to resign,” Finance Minister Didier Reynders told reporters after the Open VLD party withdrew its support.
The fresh explosion of deep-seated tensions between the richer Dutch-speaking Flemish and poorer francophone region of Wallonia to the south casts a cloud over attempts by Belgium to set an assertive agenda ahead of assuming the EU’s rotating presidency on July 1.
Open VLD took its decision after lengthy talks between parties from the two linguistic regions failed to reach a deal over the special voting rights that apply to French speakers in the Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde suburbs of Brussels, where around 100,000 francophones live.
These Flemish-run communities on the outskirts of the capital have been trying to dissuade French-speakers from moving in, largely by demanding that they speak Dutch, but also by toughly enforcing rules on public housing and seeking to suppress the special voting rights.
Talks broke down overnight on Wednesday with no deal in sight.
The four remaining coalition members can still muster a mathematical majority between them in the chamber of deputies.
However, the departure of the Flemish liberals broke the coalition’s fragile balance — leaving just Leterme’s Flemish Christian democrats and three francophone parties.
There are no political parties operating nationally, which means each government must be a coalition of the linguistic communities.
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