Belgium matches Iraq no-government record
BRUSSELS - BELGIUM on Thursday snatched Iraq's dubious record as the country boasting the world's longest political crisis of recent times, an event to be cheekily marked by a 'chips revolution' honouring a favourite national dish.
The nation of 11 million people, home to both the European Union and Nato, hit 249 days of political deadlock after an election last June 13 that failed to produce an outright winner.
Already Europe's longest wait for a government - beating the Netherlands in 1977 at 208 days - Thursday sees Belgium out-performing Iraq, where Kurds and Shiite and Sunni Muslims struck a political pact late last year after 249 days, which in December, 40 days later, saw a government sworn in.
But a new government for Belgium is not even on the horizon, as politicians from the Dutch-speaking north and the French-speaking south continue to squabble over a coalition government deal.
In hopes of bringing the two sides to a deal, Belgian students have called a host of tongue-in-cheek events to mark the occasion.
After boycotts on sex and shaving, these include free French fries countrywide. -- AFP
