eldr, Thursday 10 January 2008 14:55 ::
The new Belgian government coalition includes Liberals and Christian-Democrats from both sides of the language border, as well as the French-speaking Socialists. It continues to be led by Guy Verhofstadt as ad interim Prime Minister. This government works on the basis of a limited work programme and is designed to tackle pressing issues such as the mounting energy and food prices as well as to reduce the international interest in the political crisis, which is believed to be detrimental to foreign investment.
On the other hand, Mr Yves Leterme - appointed twice by the King to form a government – is set to take over from Guy Verhofstadt after Easter but has made himself deeply unpopular in the south of the country by making a series of gaffes.