Belgium

King refuses to accept PM's resignation

Article published on the 2008-07-18 Latest update 2008-07-18 14:22 TU

King Albert II arrives at the Laeken Palace in Brussels
(Photo: Reuters)

Belgium's King Albert II on Thursday refused to accept the resignation of Prime Minister Yves Leterme, the Flemish-speaking conservative who offered to quit on Monday after a prolonged political crisis.

Leterme tendered his resignation after failing to unite the two main linguistic communities, the Dutch-speaking group and French-speakers, around a package of constitutional reforms.  The reform aims to redistribute competences between the two groups, and would give Flanders greater powers.

Leterme is the head of the party that came out in front in elections in June 2007.  But no government could be formed until last March.  

The king has asked three senior politicians - Walloon minister Raymond Langendries, François-Xavier de Donnea of the Brussels-Capital region and Karl-Heinz Lambertz from the tiny German-speaking community - to start an "institutional dialogue". They are to report back later this month.

"The whole problem is that the two main communities … have different visions as to how the federal state should work," says Brussels journalist Rolf Falter. "It’s proven to be very difficult to find a new compromise between the two, as the Flemish part of the country wants more autonomy and the French-speaking community to accept this."

Falter told RFI that the king refused to accept the resignation because  he is frightened of more radical alternatives, such as independence for Flanders, which are being voiced.