"Important progress" has been made in efforts to find a workable government for Belgium, King Albert II said in a statement Wednesday, after talks with the main contender for premier, Elio Di Rupo. Belgium held parliamentary elections on June 13. But creating a government depends on centre-right parties in Dutch-speaking Flanders and centre-left parties in French-speaking Wallonia finding enough common ground to form a coalition, dpa reported. Over the past days, the press has speculated that calls from Dutch-speaking nationalist Bart De Wever, whose N-VA party was the big election winner, to renegotiate the way money is shared between the central and local governments, would lead the talks to break down. But in his statement, Albert II said he had asked Di Rupo "to continue his mission," focusing on the controversial aspects of government financing and institutional division of powers. De Wever's supporters want a move towards further federalism, so that richer Flanders can retain a bigger share of its wealth. Conversely, Di Rupo's Socialist Party (PS) defends the central state as a means to redistribute wealth to poorer Wallonia. -- SPA
