Belgium

Decisive progress towards a government

Published on 15 September 2011 at 11:41

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“Negotiators take the plunge,”headlines Belgian daily De Standaard, following the agreement, reached overnight, between the eight parties engaged in the governmental talks concerning the division of the bilingual Brussels-Hal-Vilvord (BHV) voting district. “After 458 days, the negotiations have made a potentially historic breakthrough,” the Flemish paper writes. BHV was the most symbolic obstacle in the talks, between French and Flemish speakers, aimed at moving the country out of a political impasse. However, the head of De Morgen’s political sectionSteven Samyn, remains somewhat sceptical. “Journalists are rushing things a little in using the term ‘historic’ [...] vehement discussions on financing legislation, then on consolidating the State’s finances or even the problem of the right of asylum are still to come;” he notes.

As for the French language press, it also unanimously hails the agreement. “Historic? Historic!” gleefully says the editor in chief of Le Soir, Béatrice Delvaux. “French and Dutch speaking parties have concluded an agreement on the division of a voting district that felled governments, Prime Ministers, that led to the crushing birth of a nationalist party [New Flemish Alliance or N-VA, excluded from the talks] and which brought the country to the brink of implosion,” she says, adding, “So yes, the fact that these parties have finally found that famous ‘deal’ on BHV is history”. But Francis Van de Woestyne, leader writer for La Libre Belgique is more cautious. “It’s now time to move on to the following issues,” he stresses and warns that “This accord on BHV, it will be easy to repudiate it”.

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