King Albert named Flemish Christian Democrat Herman Van Rompuy as Belgian prime minister on Tuesday to head a revived five-party coalition in a country facing recession and a bank crisis. Van Rompuy replaces his fellow party member Yves Leterme, who resigned on December 19 over allegations of political meddling in the bailout of stricken bank Fortis.
"The King received Mr Herman Van Rompuy this afternoon at the Chateau de Laeken and named him prime minister," the palace said in a statement. The swearing-in ceremony was to follow and the parliamentary vote of confidence will take place on Friday.
The five parties that had made up Leterme's government renewed their coalition after a three-hour meeting on Tuesday. Van Rompuy was expected to take over his predecessor's plan for battling a looming recession caused by the global financial crisis. He will also have to show sensitivity in handling the strained relations between Flanders, Belgium's richer, more populous Dutch-speaking region, and its Francophone area.
"Nothing is simple in our country, but what is important is that we have a government to lead with seriousness, stability and serenity," said Elio di Rupo, leader of the Francophone Socialist Party. Van Rompuy will be the third prime minister since general elections in June 2007 in the linguistically divided country that is host to the main European Union institutions and to Nato.
"I think we have a good formula to have a government this year," said Didier Reynders, leader of the Francophone Liberal Party, who will stay on as finance minister. Belgium is expected to have slipped into recession in the fourth quarter, major banks have received bail-outs, and fighting the economic downturn will be Reynders' main challenge. Van Rompuy, 61, has the reputation of being both an intellectual and a budgetary hard-liner. He was budget minister from 1993 to 1999 and sharply reduced public debt in his first year in office.
His other task will be to sort out the Fortis debacle. The bank's shareholders won an appeal court ruling this month, freezing the group's break-up by the Dutch, Luxembourg and Belgian governments and the latter's sale of Fortis assets to BNP Paribas. Leterme's government had planned a 2 billion euro ($2.87 billion) package of measures to boost growth, including tax cuts, lower energy costs and accelerated infrastructure projects.
That government collapsed after the Supreme Court said there were clear indications of political meddling in a court ruling over the bailout of Fortis. Belgium's coalition comprises the Flemish Christian Democrat Party, Flemish Liberal Party, Francophone Liberal Party, Francophone Christian Democrats and Francophone Socialist Party.