Belgium's chances of surviving as a single country suffered a significant blow on Saturday night when the man tipped to be the next prime minister abandoned almost six months of bad-tempered wrangling over a new government and threw in the towel.
Yves Leterme, the Flemish Christian Democrat leader who emerged strongest from general elections in June, went to the royal palace in Brussels to tell King Albert he had had enough.
The king accepted Leterme's resignation, but left open the key question of what happens next in the effort to secure a consensus between the country's Dutch-speaking Flemish and francophone Walloon communities.
Leterme's resignation marked a watershed in the long-running crisis and shortened the odds on Belgium eventually splintering into two new countries at the heart of Europe -- the bigger, more prosperous northern region of Flanders, where the push for more autonomy is fueling separatism, and the southern, less successful and region of Wallonia, which is keen to preserve Belgium.
Since Leterme's electoral victory, there have been endless talks involving four parties of Flemish and Walloon Christian Democrats and Liberals.
Leterme issued an ultimatum on Friday, demanding answers to three questions from his putative coalition partners on the future. His demands focused on action to reform the federal structures of Belgium, appeasing Flemish separatism by granting greater powers to Flanders and weakening central government.
Leterme's Christian Democrat counterparts in Wallonia baulked, however, triggering the Leterme resignation.
Last month Flemish members of parliament dissolved the pact that has been the underlying basis of government in Belgium for decades, forcing a vote against the wishes of the francophone side and resorting to majority rule. Flanders has 6 million people to Wallonia's 4.5 million people.
While the Flemish side voted, the French-speaking side walked out of the chamber. The issue concerned the fate of three historically Flemish communities on the edge of Brussels. The vote stripped French-speakers of the right to vote for French-speaking parties in the three places.
In Brussels, more than 20,000 people rallied on the streets two weeks ago to profess their loyalty to a state called Belgium.
But beyond the capital, particularly in Flanders, the mood is different.
Dutch and French speakers do not talk to one another. They watch different TV stations, read different newspapers and send their kids to different schools and universities. There are no national political parties. Leterme is a Christian Democrat but his proposals were rejected by Christian Democrats from the other side of the linguistic divide.
Through almost six months of negotiations, the Flemish side has insisted on further concessions to ethnic and linguistic autonomy as the price for forming a common government.
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