Belgium finds a new government

Brussels correspondent Alois Berger takes a pessimistic view of Belgium's new government under Yves Leterme: "Leterme is not just Flemish, he's Flemish pure. He's not interested in Belgium - at best he's indifferent about it. Otherwise, how could anyone seriously come up with the idea of forming an electoral alliance with a separatist party. ... Of course he ended up having to eat humble pie. He's stopped complaining about the Francophones and obediently gives interviews in French nowadays. But he did his utmost to bring the separatists into the government. The Christian Democrat Yves Leterme is not himself a separatist, but he could certainly imagine a Flanders without the troublesome Wallonia. It's this ambivalence that's so widespread in Flanders."

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