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Old March 18th, 2008 #5
Diana400
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Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: living in Belgium for last 10 years
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Default Deal reached on programme for Belgian coalition government

BRUSSELS (AFP) - Belgian political parties struck a deal Tuesday on a programme for a coalition government under Christian Democrat Yves Leterme, who will take the reins on Thursday, the Flemish leader said.


"It's a good deal for a government, with balanced measures," Leterme said on local RTBF radio, announcing a pact that should bring to an end a nine-month political crisis that came close to splitting the country in half.

Agreement on a political programme followed a night of negotiations between two Dutch-speaking Flemish parties and three francophone parties, allowing a permanent coalition government to be set up with an agreed agenda.

Since the June 2007 elections, Belgium has been engulfed in a political crisis with the richer Flemish north seeking more regional powers, a move opposed by leaders in the poorer French-speaking southern region of Wallonia.

The last sticking points included differences over social, health and justice policies.

Leterme, 47, whose Christian Democrats came out on top in last year's general election, is due to present his ministers at the royal palace on Thursday morning.

He will take up the reins from outgoing prime minister Guy Verhofstadt who had agreed to stay on as interim leader until now.

The "balanced" deal was endorsed on the same RTBF station by francophone Socialist party chief Elio Di Rupo, current liberal finance minister Didier Reynders and the leader of the centrist francophones Joelle Milquet.

The agreement traces the broad lines of a government programme aimed at offering the country some political stability after months in which raised the possibility of the country splitting in two along its linguistic faultline.

Di Rupo hailed the agreement as a boost to the poorly paid, the retired and those on welfare benefits, while also pointing to measures on climate change.

Reynders cautioned that it will take years to translate some of the broad policies into concrete measures.

The five coalition partners have yet to divide up the cabinet portfolios.

The profile of the incoming government will not very different from that of the outgoing interim team, which has been in place since December.

The main difference will be that Verhofstadt has said he will take a "year's sabbatical" after nine years in power.

With his popularity high he has said could take part in elections to the European parliament in June 2009.

Leterme on the other had will head up a government already suffering low opinion poll ratings.

According to the latest published Monday, just 10 percent of francophones and 45 percent of Flemish voters have confidence in him at the helm.

Nor does the deal solve the problems which plunged the country into its rift between the Dutch-speaking majority (60 percent of the 10.5 million population) -- which wants more autonomy for Flanders -- and the francophone minority, which wants political powers to be held by the central government.