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Failure by Belgium's political parties to form a government since elections in June have prompted fears of a split in the tiny European country.
Al Jazeera's Tania Page reports from Belgium, where the country is seen as roughly divided between the Dutch-speakers in the North and the mainly Franco-phone population in the south.
The dispute, over whether 120,000 French-speakers living in Flemish areas should have the right to elect French- speaking politicians, arouses high passions in a country split between the two languages.
As the apparently innocuous spat in an electoral district just outside Brussels escalated out of control, demonstrations ended in violent confrontations with police. Senior government ministers cancelled all other work for emergency negotiations, but failed to broker a deal over the weekend.
“It is clear — there is no progress,†Laurette Onkelink, the Francophone Socialist vice-premier said.
The unresolved dispute will now be handed over to the federal parliament to try to broker a deal.
“For the Government, for the majority and the country, this week will be pivotal,†Johan Vande Lanotte, the Institutional Reform Minister, said.
Such is the anger on both sides of the linguistic divide that the French-language Le Soir newspaper wondered on its front page: “Is Belgium finished?â€
The linguistic schism is so deep that no political party yet straddles the language divide. There are two separate Socialist parties, one French and one Flemish, a dialect of Dutch. There are two national theatres, and universities and hospitals are either French or Flemish, with doctors sending patients to a particular hospital on the basis of their language.
Belgium — the last surviving artificially created state in Europe after the collapse of the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia — has tried to resolve the tensions by dividing itself into three semi-independent regions. In the north is the Flemish-speaking Flanders, where the largest political party is the separatist Vlaams Berlang; in the south, the poorer French-speaking Waloonia; and embedded within Flanders is Brussels, the only region of the country that is officially bilingual, although in practice it is more than 80 per cent Francophone.
The latest dispute has arisen because Brussels is surrounded by a commuter belt in Flemish territory and French-speakers living there want to have the same language rights as if they lived in Brussels.
In Flemish communities, all official business and advertising has to be in Flemish, making it difficult for French-speakers to have dealings with their local authority.
The Flemish, who make up 60 per cent of the 10.5 million population, complain that in many areas, most notably Brussels, French is taking over. Brussels was historically a Flemish city — and is still the capital of the Flanders region, as well as the national capital — but it has become almost totally Francophone, making the Flemish resentful that they have difficulty using their own language in their own capital.
Telegraph Online wrote:
Belgium's bitter political infighting will be forgotten today as its people unite to celebrate the humble chip.
The chip is Belgium's national dish
A love of chips may soon be the only thing that unites Belgians if political infighting worsens
The chip is Belgium's national dish. No town square is complete without its frietkot or chip-stand - whether in Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north or French-speaking Wallonia in the south.
Although unable to form a central government since elections in June, the whole country will be celebrating the start of its annual "week of the chip".
Whether they call them friet or frites, all Belgians delight in eating their double-cooked chips, which must be made from Bintje potatoes and are often fried in beef or even horse fat before being served with mayonnaise.
Polling has found that 98.5 per cent of Belgians agree that the "chip shop is part of our cultural heritage of which we must be proud".
Indeed, Bernard Lefvre, president of the union of chip-makers, believes that in a country so split along linguistic fault lines, only the chip is "typically Belgian".
"A chip shop is like Belgium in miniature," he said. "We are not a revolutionary people. The political problem still seems to be something above us - it is like watching foreign television. And even the most separatist of people would not dream of saying that fries are Flemish or Walloon."
However, Belgium's future looks grim as the Dutch-speaking Flemish majority pushes for more autonomy, a move that many predict will see it break into two.
At the weekend, Yves Leterme, the Flemish Christian Democrat charged by King Albert II with building a coalition government, gave up on the task - marking a new low in an unprecedented 176-day crisis since the general election on June 10.
Three points:
1) Belgium shoud split, deffenitly!
2) frensh people have caused this, if they didn't do so shildish, there wouldn't have been a problem
3) now we have a temp government, but I hope it will be dead after some time, so we NEED to split!
(srr, I hate frensh people, they don't talk our language, but we have to talk theirs, they don't do anything for our country, and they use all the flemish money!)
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