Belgian political stalemate continues

Over four months after elections, efforts to form a new government flopped again in an enduring spat between Belgium’s Dutch and French-speaking camps that touches on the fate of the country as a unitary state.

Since the June 13 elections, half a dozen politicians have failed to form a government that would enact more self-rule for Dutch-speaking Flanders - Belgium’s economically dominant north – and Francophone Wallonia in the south.