Belgians mark 'no-government world record'

BBC News, 17 February 2011

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Belgians are staging a series of tongue-in-cheek events to mark what many there see as a new record - the world's longest wait for a government.

Some Belgians are calling the events a "chips revolution"

Belgium has been without a government for 249 days - longer than Iraq - as parties from the Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south remain split.

To mark the event, 249 people plan to strip naked in Ghent, and there will be free beer and chips in other cities.

Organisers hope the events would boost efforts to break the political impasse.

"We've had enough of political games," Kliment Kostadinov, one of the organisers, told the AFP.

"We must get a government fast and a reform of our institutions that is good for all Belgians."

Johan Vande Lanotte, who resigned recently from the post of king's mediator with the task of ending the crisis, urged Belgium's political leaders not to give up in finding a solution.

He told Belgian radio that he had achieved agreement on up to 70% of his text but the final step had proved difficult.

"If the gap is so great, the parties should take great steps. That is not easy. Often they don't realise how hard that is. You don't make major reform of the state without enormous pain in your own ranks," Mr Lanotte said.

A caretaker government has been running Belgium since last June's elections which failed to produce an outright winner.