Belgian PM returns as three wise men seek end to crisis

A statement from the palace overnight said the king would not allow Prime Minister Yves Leterme, who only took office in March, to step down and had given three senior politicians two weeks to chart a way forward.

It means that Leterme, who will in the interim oversee the implementation of social reforms recently agreed by his five-party coalition government, will have a fourth shot at trying to unite Belgium around a power-sharing deal.

"What comedy," said the editorialist in the French-language Le Soir daily. "Who do we find again at the head of the executive? The thrice-failed man, prisoner of the coalition from which he was issued."

The 47-year-old Flemish conservative resigned Monday, unable to reconcile the demands of parties from Flanders -- where some 60 percent of Belgium’s 10.5 million people live -- over radical reforms to the federal state.

Flanders, Belgium’s Dutch-speaking northern half, has long sought more regional powers to reflect its prosperity. It also resents subsidising the less affluent, French-speaking Wallonia region to its south.

Flemish parties now appear determined to press their demands for more powers, which have gone largely ignored since they were made in earnest at the end of the 1990s.

"We need a government that can take decisions and that is what the king has opted for by refusing his resignation," deputy premier Didier Reynders told public RTBF radio Friday.

"We need to take the pressure off and calmly relaunch a dialogue between the communities," he said.

The king has designated Wallon minister Raymond Langendries, Francois-Xavier de Donnea of the Brussels-Capital region and Karl-Heinz Lambertz from the tiny German-speaking community to kick-start an "institutional dialogue".

The "three wise men" have been asked "to examine in what way guarantees can be offered in order to begin in a credible way an institutional dialogue". They will have to report back at the end of this month.

No Flemish politician was named but Leterme, as premier, will keep an eye on proceedings.

The king’s decision comes just ahead of the national holiday on Monday.

Should Leterme’s government stay standing, analysts say, Belgium could evolve towards a confederation, with central power diluted in favor of the linguistic regions.

The new period of uncertainty comes just as Belgium appeared to have found some sense of stability following a nine-month period in which no government could be formed after June 10 elections last year.

Since that crisis, French speakers have agreed to enter into reform talks, realizing it was perhaps the only way to stop Belgium breaking up -- which almost one in two Flemish people want, according to a recent opinion poll.

Analysts say that nobody wants fresh elections, as that could give a boost to fringe parties, but this new twist and the fact that the problem has dragged on for more than a year does not auger well for regional elections next June.