Belgium's king, mulling his prime minister's offer to quit, yesterday called for emergency talks between feuding francophone and Flemish parties to avert a political crisis as the nation prepares to take the EU helm.
King Albert II is trying to avoid the need for snap elections after premier Yves Leterme threw in the towel on Thursday, little more than two months before Belgium assumes the rotating EU presidency.
Leterme's decision became inevitable after the Open VLD Flemish liberals walked out of his five-party coalition government as the country's linguistic faultline threatens to split the country in two.
The king asked Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders to seek urgent talks between the parties representing the country's main communities, the richer Dutch-speaking northern region of Flanders and their poorer francophone neighbours in Wallonia to the south.
He asked Reynders "to insure, as soon as possible that the conditions are there for rapidly resuming negotiations on these institutional problems," and Reynders has accepted, the royal palace said in a statement.
The focal point in those talks would be the rights of francophone residents of Flemish suburbs of Brussels.
Open VLD leader Alexander De Croo pulled his party out of the coalition on Thursday frustrated by the lack of progress on the issue which is a flashpoint for the nation's broader intercommunal problems.
All parties are keen to avoid a prolonged political crisis, and embarrassment as Belgium prepares to take the EU reins in July.
The country is proud of Brussels' status as 'the capital of Europe' housing as it does the headquarters of the EU's main institutions.
To preside over pan-European talks while enduring a political crisis at home is unthinkable to most politicians and commentators.
However the crisis runs much deeper than the rights of a French-speaking minority in Dutch-speaking towns, with some asking whether Belgium can continue to exist in its present form.
Joelle Milquet, chairwoman of the French-speaking Christian Democrat CDH, welcomed the intervention of the king, who has held talks with all the main political players since the coalition government imploded.