BRUSSELS
A center right- four-party coalition government in Belgium took office Saturday.
Under the leadership of French-speaking liberals, the new government ends a four-month deadlock after the May 25 general elections in the country. In 2010, it took 18 months to form a government in Brussels.
The 38-year old Prime Minister Charles Michel leads a Francophone liberal party at the head of a coalition government for the nation which is linguistically divided between French, Dutch and German speakers. The new government comprises the Flemish liberals, the Flemish Christian Democrats and the separatist New Flemish Alliance party. It is the first time in recent history that a Socialist party is not part of a Belgian government.
The New Flemish Alliance, which advocates the breakup of the country along linguistic lines into separate nations, took one third of the vote, the largest amount of any party. But the other parties were not willing to allow the separatist party to form a government. The party has five seats in the cabinet including interior, finance and defense ministries.
The new prime minister Michel’s Reformist Movement party will have the ministries of agriculture, energy, mobility, budget and pensions. Michel’s party also ensured that the foreign affairs post stayed with party veteran Didier Reynders.
The Flemish Christian Democrats have the economy, justice and foreign trade ministries while the Flemish liberals have telecommunications and health ministries, along with the ministry to combat poverty and social fraud.
The new government announced that they will raise the retirement age from 65 to 67 by 2030 and pledged to balance the budget by 2016 through cuts in public spending.
The new government is confronted with a weak economy set to grow at little more than 1 percent this year, and a national debt that is the highest in the euro zone at about 100 percent of gross domestic product.
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