Belgian Government Collapses After Botched Bank Bailout

BRUSSELS, Belgium — Belgium's king met behind closed doors with elected officials Saturday in an attempt to resolve a political crisis that has frozen action on dire economic problems including the sale of the country's largest bank.

The government has been trying to sell much of the bank, Fortis, to France's BNP Paribas. Fortis was forced to seek government help during tight credit conditions and was eventually carved up. Thousands of jobs could be lost if the sale to Paribas goes awry.

But Belgian shareholders who have seen their stakes become nearly worthless challenged the sale and won a decision by a Belgian appeals court, which ruled Dec. 12 that they should have been consulted on any major deals.

The country's highest court said Friday that it had indications that Prime Minister Yves Leterme's government had tried to influence the appeals court decision.

Leterme denied he had done anything wrong but offered to resign, saying the allegations made it impossible to continue the government's work.

The government has halted work while King Albert II weighs whether to reject the resignation, call for early elections or explore ways to form a new government based on the current legislature.

The crisis effectively freezes all government work. Apart from Fortis, the government is also dealing with a general collective bargaining agreement between employers and workers and the latest attempts to foster cooperation perennially bickering Dutch- and French-speakers.

"The king will have to untie this knot," said Elio Di Rupo, chairman of the French-speaking Socialists, part of the ruling coalition.

Albert met with Jo Vandeurzen, who resigned as justice minister Friday and with the leaders of the House of Representatives and Senate.

Leterme heads a coalition of Christian democrats, liberals and socialists, split into Dutch- and French- speaking parties.

All the ruling parties said they hoped to avoid early elections because stability was needed to react during the global economic crisis. But opposition parties insisted Leterme could not stay in office because interference in a court case would be a direct violation of the separation of powers, a cornerstone of parliamentary democracy.

Comments

[plwood01]

Greed has caused the world to abandon all common sense! If blame is to be set, countries must blame themselves for following the unreasearched, untried and over extended Bush policies. They need to think of themselves as "21st century teenagers," doing what their peers are doing instead of listening to those' who would ask them, "would you jump off a bridge if America does it?" Due to the lack of adult supervision, visa vie, critical thinking around the world, that answer from the world's 21st century teenage administrations and democracies would have to be a resounding YES! Now, there is a need for a distinct kind of time out, to allow adults to right the wrongs perpetrated by the teenagers looking for a "get rich quick," type of psychology that has hurt us for years to come. Adults know that they have a responsibility to their children, that one needs to save for a rainy day, and that anything worth having is worth working for, and one has to work hard for their goals. Adults also know, that everyone has something to contribute to the betterment of society, and that they can measure their life's work by the number of people that they lift up and care for. No one has ever taken any money with them into the afterlife!

[rbenjamin]

The system works!....In Belgium.

[BertDW]

This was actually a long time coming, this government took almost a year to from and was built on too many compromises and non-decisions on how to handle some of the difficult issues. Then the one thing that the prime minister was at last perceived to take proper action on was handling the ecomocic crisis. Now that there are suspicions he did not handle it legally (no hard proof still), well that basically meant the goverment lost the little trust and credibility they had. It could have been any other government crisis really, can't really blame the US, we have those regularly in Belgium as a matter of tradition.

[HummusGringo]

Wow, and we think we have issues over here... the Belgians have parties that don't even speak the same language! Literally!

[julia23]

so does Canada.

[watchingthings]

Greed does not have borders. Monkey see.....monkey do takes over.

[Peabodies]

I would rewrite the headline "Reshuffle in the Belgium government". "Collapse" is not something European governments do. They are true democracies. They bounce back.

[Woodmist]

And are we next? I am so angry that Obama has to enter his Presidency dealing with this nightmare. The entire world is paying for following our ridiculous economic policy. Granted they chose to do it but I do believe they were more in the dark than us citizens...dazzled by the lies of American corporate money changers. Greed eliminates common sense and a market with nearly zero regulation and oversight is always ripe to unscrupulous, greedy money men.

[SirRealDeal]

A couple of weeks ago, I heard an interview with the French Finance Minister Christine Lagarde. During the interview, she talked about the dangerous wild west regulation mentality of the American economic system and how it was endangering the world's economic stability. The Madoff Scandal is a screaming example of this lack of regulatory oversight. Not only is our foreign policy seen as dangerously rogue but so is our economic policy. Is it any wonder why we have so few staunch allies in the world these days.

[Peabodies]

Ms Lagarde has an advanced degree from a U.S. university. If she said that, I'm impressed. She was more inclined to agree with the neocons just a while back. Hmmm ...

[LMPE]

Why the alliterative title?

[NoSillyName]

Why not? Just say it five times rapidly and you'll feel better about it.

[getoffmedz]

Bush administration and Congress.

TAKE A LESSON.

[vippy]

Curious is that all of America's friends are now hurting. I hope they learned their lessons well or
as I believe this all was planned.

[BobsNotWorking]

You bet is was planned. It is international in scope because the people who orchestrate it are international bankers. They aren't hurting. Their wealth is not at stake. They orchestrate the "business cycle" (a contrivance) in order to expand or contract the money supply. In doing so they periodically steal whatever wealth the middle class has been able to accumulate during the boom times. They are able to do this because we are not in control of our currency. The "Fed" controls the money supply. The "Fed" is not part of our government. It is a private bank owned by member banks and controlled by international bankers. Sounds unbelievable doesn't it? It is unbelievable, but it's true. Every American, and every citizen of every developed country, should educate themselves about their "Central" banks. They are not what they appear to be.

[Paprikapink]

I'd imagine Belgium is just one domino ...

[Syncoptic1]

They can thank the ailing American economy for spreading it's germs worldwide.

[bluestatelib]

They were active participants in their own demise.