(Xinhua) — Belgium is poised to have a new government soon as the five parties of the outgoing government put the finishing touches on a coalition agreement Tuesday. Herman van Rompuy, asked by Belgium's King Albert II to form a government, said Monday night that the five parties have agreed in principle to a coalition and were to finalize the details Tuesday.
Van Rompuy, a Flemish Christian Democrat like the outgoing Prime Minister Yves Leterme, told Flemish Radio One that the parties have reached a deal on continuing the current coalition on the basis of the previous government accord. He also said they would continue with the previous government's plans to shore up the faltering economy.
It's expected that van Rompuy, the 61-year-old speaker of the lower house of parliament, will succeed Leterme as prime minister. According to Belgian media reports, the new government is expected to stay on until 2011.
Is that the time or the year?
The Leterme government collapsed on Dec. 19 over allegations that the prime minister's office had attempted to influence a court ruling on the partial sale of financial services group Fortis to French bank BNP Paribas. Leterme denied the allegations but he and Justice Minister Jo Vandeurzen ruled out participating in the new government.
The resignation of the government, the second in five months, plunged Belgium into yet another crisis as long-running rifts between the Francophone and the Flemish parties over state reforms remain unresolved and the country's economy is set to slide into recession in the fourth quarter. Leterme's government had planned a 2-billion-euro (2.82 billion U.S. dollars) stimulus package.