Brussels
A government! More than 18 months after the last election, Belgium’s political parties have agreed to form a government. Socialist Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, sworn in this week, is a bit of a controversial choice, not because he’s openly gay, but because he’s the first native French speaker to lead the nation in decades and has a poor command of Flemish, the main language of most Belgians. The country was run by a caretaker administration while the parties bickered over how to share power between French and Flemish communities. Pressure from financial markets forced a breakthrough after Belgium’s credit rating was downgraded last month.
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