How long did belgium go without government

The new government was announced days after the previous one collapsed in December , following a walk-out by the Flemish nationalist party, the NVA, over migration policy.

Elections in May proved inconclusive, as the nationalist separatist right made gains in Flanders, while Socialists triumphed in the south-eastern Francophone region of Wallonia. The current accord excludes the two largest parties in Flanders, the NVA and the far-right Vlaams Belang Flemish Interest party, whose leader denounced the pact.

De Croo, a former management consultant, is the son of veteran politician Herman De Croo. For the past year Belgium has had no permanent government, and the kingdom's citizens don't seem to mind. How can you form a coalition to rule a Dutch-speaking north that votes solidly conservative and a left-leaning French-speaking south?

In some countries this might be a national crisis, but Belgians seem hardly bothered, used to living in a land that is ungovernable, but where citizens somehow just get on with life. Indeed, the crisis days of to -- when Belgium went days without a government and the linguistic divide was so deep that the future of the county seemed in question -- seem distant.

The latest adventure in caretaker government began on December 18, when then prime minister Charles Michel threw in the towel after the Flemish nationalist N-VA -- Belgium's biggest party -- quit his coalition over migration policy.

Since then, a centre-right group with no parliamentary majority has managed day-to-day business, and after Michel took up a top EU job, Belgium got its first female prime minister, little-known Sophie Wilmes.

General elections last May only made the situation more complex, with big breakthroughs by anti-establishment parties: the far-right Vlaams Belang in Dutch-speaking Flanders and the far-left PTB and Greens in French-speaking areas. With the centre squeezed, the near impossible task has been to form a government that includes both the Flemish conservative NV-A and the leftist and French-speaking Socialists.

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