Breakthrough

After 459 days without a government, the mediator tasked with negotiating a coalition deal with Belgium's main political parties announced a major breakthrough in talks late Wednesday.

"The eight parties have together succeeded in overcoming the obstacles which have created difficulties," said socialist leader Elio Di Rupo.

One of the main obstacles was deciding electoral boundaries in and around bilingual Brussels, a thorny issue that has divided French and Dutch-speaking politicians for a decade. After 10 hours of talks, leaders from eight parties emerged just after midnight to announce that they had an agreement.

"This is the greatest stumbling block in Belgian politics of the past 10 years and the eight parties have finally succeeded in clearing it," said Alexander De Croo, head of the Flemish Liberals, who brought down the previous government last year over its failure to solve the issue.

Months of deadlock

Only 24 hours earlier Di Rupo had described negotiations as "seriously blocked" after being tasked by Belgium's King Albert II to conclude the talks as quickly as possible.

Even after the breakthrough, it is likely to take several more weeks for a government to be formed. Belgium has been in political deadlock since a parliamentary election in June 2010 which failed to find a majority party. The parties said in a statement that the negotiations on other issues such as economic and social policy will continue on Thursday.

Belgium is currently administered by a caretaker government led by Yves Leterme, who resigned on Tuesday saying he would leave by the end of the year to take on a post at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).

The political chaos has had a knock-on effect on the markets, as the lack of fully-fledged government means the country is unable to carry out structural reforms to deal with a giant public debt.

Author: Catherine Bolsover (Reuters, AP, AFP)
Editor: Martin Kuebler