Belgium in last ditch effort to form government, new polls possible

Belgium may have to head to the polls again if two advisers appointed by King Philippe on Monday fail to find agreement on forming a coalition government over the next fifty days, one of the advisers said. Belgium has been run by a caretaker administration with limited powers for more than a year as a May election failed to resolve the standoff.

Belgium may have to head to the polls again if two advisers appointed by King Philippe on Monday fail to find agreement on forming a coalition government over the next fifty days, one of the advisers said.

Belgium has been run by a caretaker administration with limited powers for more than a year as a May election failed to resolve the standoff. The king earlier on Monday tasked Bart De Wever, leader of the centre-right N-VA, the largest party in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, and Paul Magnette, Socialist party leader in the French-speaking Walloon region, with the job.

They will look into the possibilities and the requirements for forming a government. Various teams appointed by the king in recent months went back to him empty handed. There are 50 days to form a government or elections must be called, Magnette was quoted as saying by Belgian news agency Belga.

Belgium's linguistic divide has always been a thorny issue in forming a government. The country took a world record 541 days to cobble together a government after the 2010 election.