euro|topics - Belgium finds a new government

Main focus of Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Belgium finds a new government

On March 18th negotiators of five political parties approved the program of Belgium's coalition government. Nine months after its legislative elections, the country is thus going to have a definitive government headed by Prime Minister Yves Leterme. The press nevertheless doubts the success of this new team.

De Morgen - Belgium

"After nine months, the baby was due", explains Yves Desmet, the daily's editor in chief. "The only alternatives were administrative chaos or new elections. But the baby has been brought into the world with forceps; it is premature and has little chance of survival. This governmental agreement is entirely based on postponement; all the conflict zones have been evacuated. ... In Leterme's government the electoral fever has not abated. The top priorities of this team feature neither good management, nor a balanced and coherent compromise between the different ideological veins of the different linguistic communities. ... This government is burying its head in the sand, brushing aside problems and wallowing in promises. The bill will come later and the government is hoping it won't be the one who has to foot it." (19/03/2008)

Berliner Zeitung - Germany

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." (19/03/2008)

La Libre Belgique - Belgium

Michel Konen is glad to see that Belgium can at last count on a government, but doubts the new team is very efficient. "To speak of a program related to this agreement is excessive. Let us rather talk about a catalogue of good intentions. Just enough to address a declaration to Members of Parliament who don't wish to inflict any trouble on their freshly minted ministries. It is true that their promises are numerous. They have had no shortage of spending ideas. They have so many that they haven't had time to look for the savings necessary to carry them out. ... Leterme hasn't put the unresolved problems on ice, which is Belgium's traditional technique. He has just put them off until later, for a few weeks or months. He has paved his future with traps that will be so many occasions for arguments among men and women who have yet to demonstrate a deep desire to work together as a team. Is Leterme's first government a , 'no future' one? (19/03/2008)

Neue Zürcher Zeitung - Switzerland

None of the parties have been able to realise their goals, Jürg Dedial writes with reference to the new coalition government. "But Belgium is not doomed to failure because of this. It will be able to live with its unsatisfactory political institutions, in the not entirely unreasonable hope that a careful redistribution of wealth (from Flanders to Wallonia) and the continued strengthening of the European regions will eventually overcome linguistic and ethnic differences. Brussels, the metropolis, which has become more European than Belgian, will also play an increasingly prominent role in balancing out the internal situation." (19/03/2008)

» To the complete press review of Wednesday, March 19, 2008

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