New Political Crisis Threatens Belgian Break-up

Belgian political leaders were today holding urgent talks to resolve a new dispute between the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority and the French-speaking minority.

The crisis, which threatens to break up the country, broke out on Monday when the Flemish Christian Democrat Yves Leterme, who has been the prime minister for only four months, offered to resign.

His move came amid irreconcilable differences between prosperous Flanders in the north and stagnating Wallonia in the south.

Today, the king, Albert II - who has so far refused to accept Leterme's resignation - met at least half a dozen party leaders from both sides of the deepening linguistic and economic divide in an effort to find a way out of the crisis.

He is due to meet union leaders later tomorrow, and Belgian commentators say his goal is to persuade Leterme to stay on and form a new coalition government to deal with Belgium's growing economic problems.

Last month, Belgian inflation hit 5.8% - the second-highest level in the 15-nation eurozone.

Leterme's party, which emerged as the strongest in the June 2007 general election, has disavowed the efforts of its leader to persuade the Francophone Walloons to agree to more socio-economic powers for Flanders.

It met last night to debate the king's favored scenario.

The monarch, who hopes to find a political solution by next Monday, Belgian national day, would entrust Leterme with the task of heading a federal government with socio-economic powers, observers believe.

The regional leaders of Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels, the EU capital and a largely French-speaking enclave within Flanders, would convene in the autumn to thrash out a "reform of the federal state" - greater devolution of powers and constituency boundary changes.

The king met the regional leaders to discuss this option yesterday.

The unpalatable alternatives would include finding a new premier, most likely to be Didier Reynders, Leterme's deputy, who has said he does not want the job.

A new general election could be held in October, only months before regional and European parliamentary elections, which could destabilize any new government, next June.

Belgium, which has only been a unitary state since just 1830, has suffered a spate of political crises.

The Flemish, whose output per head far exceeds that of the Walloons and who contribute two-thirds of the country's GDP, have become increasingly resentful of their fiscal subsidies to the poorer south.

Leading Flemish business executives have been openly campaigning for the country's break-up on Czechoslovak lines.

However, other political and business leaders say it is imperative that a country that has fervently supported a federal Europe remains united.