King asks socialist leader to look at possibility of forming coalition

Published on Friday 9 July 2010 17:26

BELGIUM'S king yesterday asked French-speaking socialist Elio Di Rupo to explore coalition options, after the leader of the largest party to emerge from last month's election gave up the task.

King Albert II originally appointed Flemish separatist Bart De Wever as adviser or "informateur" to consult with political parties and help him choose someone to form a government.

Mr De Wever, whose party won 27 out of parliament's 150 seats, stood down earlier this week on the grounds that he could not find enough agreement between the parties on key issues.

The palace said in a statement that it had asked Mr Di Rupo, whose party won 26 seats, to take over and that he had accepted.

If he can bring the Flemish separatists and others on board, Mr Di Rupo could form a government with his Parti Socialiste (PS) and their Flemish socialist counterparts.

That would pave the way for him to become Belgium's first French-speaking prime minister since 1974.

The son of Italian immigrants, he obtained a doctorate in chemistry from Mons-Hainaut university and rose to become premier of Wallonia, the French-speaking region in the south of Belgium, from 1999 to 2007.

He has been chairman of the PS for more than a decade and wears red bow ties.

However, Mr Di Rupo will need to find consensus on controversial issues such as further devolution of powers to Belgium's regions, and how to curb the country's debt and budget deficit.

He and Mr De Wever are keen to come to an agreement by September, saying they want to avoid a repeat of the 2007 talks when it took the Christian Democrat Yves Leterme nine months to form a five-party government.

Mr De Wever wants to bring more powers to the Dutch-speaking northern region of Flanders, but his N-VA (New Flemish Alliance), which wants Belgium's step-by-step dissolution, has few supporters south of the linguistic border.

In last month's elections, the New Flemish Alliance drew votes away from former premier Yves Leterme's outgoing coalition of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists - all split into Dutch and French speaking factions - whose three years in office were marked by enduring linguistic spats that remained unresolved.

The Alliance's success marked the first time a Flemish nationalist movement overtook traditional parties.

Belgium comprises Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south. Brussels, the officially bilingual but largely Francophone capital, is a third region.

Just about everything in Belgium - from political parties to broadcasters to boy scouts and voting ballots - comes in Dutch and French-speaking versions.

During the election campaign, Mr De Wever, 39, urged "Francophones to make (a country] that works".

He accused Wallonia of bad governance, immunity to reforms and opposition to the Flemish desire for more self-rule.

z