Belgium PM resigns, throwing country into crisis[fr][de] 

Leterme, a Flemish Christian Democrat (CD&V) who had painfully managed to form a government in March after winning the elections in June last year, presented his resignation to the king late last night (14 July).

The king can now either accept Leterme's resignation, re-affirm his confidence in him to pursue with his current government or give the country more time to reflect about how to move out of the crisis.

The dispute has focused on requests by the CD&V and its sister party, the Flemish N-VA ("New Flemish Alliance"), a nationalist movement, to grant more autonomy to the country's regions.

Back in March, when Leterme formed his government, the CD&V had warned that it would withdraw its confidence by mid-July if it judged unsatisfactory the results achieved on state reform and linguistic issues which have been dividing the Francophone and Flemish for years (EurActiv 19/03/08).

The more prosperous Flanders, to the north of Belgium, has long insisted on receiving more autonomy from the poorer Wallonia, the French-speaking southern part of the country, which is struggling to recover from its past industrial glories.

This time, it was Kris Peeters, the CD&V regional Prime Minister of Flanders, who withdrew his support to hold further talks with Francophone parties on budget and socio-economic reforms until institutional matters are settled.

On the Francophone side, Didier Reynders, the finance minister and deputy prime minister from the MR, a liberal party, regretted that talks on the budget and socio-economic reform had broken down because of the institutional squabble. He said francophone parties would meet on Tuesday (15 July) to assess the situation.

The Belgian crisis is being closely followed by the EU institutions in Brussels because the future status of the Belgian capital, where they have their seat, could be decided in the next round of institutional talks.

Francophone parties have repeatedly warned of a partition of the country, which is called for by 49.7% of Flemish people, according to a recent poll cited by the Associated Press.

But the status of Brussels, where the majority is French-speaking, is problematic because the "capital of Europe" is geographically situated in Flanders.