Belgian unity in doubt as the king calls off government talks

FOR years now Belgians have been compromising with one another in an effort to keep the country together. They have five parliaments and a power sharing arrangement that would baffle the best mathematician.

But now, more than three months after their last general election and 177 years after the country was invented, it’s looking as though the game is up.

The king — whom some say is the only thing holding the country together — two weeks ago called off the long and fruitless talks between politicians trying to form a government.