(22 Apr 2010)
1. Wide exterior of Belgian Parliament
2. Media waiting in front of entrance
3. Zoom out from close up of banner to medium of Flemish protestors shouting in front of the Parliament in favour of the splitting up of electoral district in central Belgium, Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV)
4. Wide of protestors holding banner calling for the splitting up of BHV
5. Charles Michel, Belgian Minister of the Development Cooperation, arriving at Parliament
6. Belgian Finance Minister Didier Reynders leaving Parliament
7. SOUNDBITE (French) Charles Michel, Belgian Minister of the Development Cooperation:
"I think what counts now is that the general interests of the country and our citizens should prevail. We are going to have major issues in the coming weeks."
8. Wide of media waiting in front of Parliament
9. Wide of the Royal Palace
10. Close up of Belgian flag
11. Medium of media in front of the Royal Palace
12. Cars with Prime Minister Yves Leterme arriving at the Royal Palace
13. Medium of man with Belgian flag
STORYLINE:
Belgian Premier Yves Leterme''s government collapsed on Thursday after negotiations broke down to resolve a long-simmering dispute between Dutch and French-speaking politicians over a bilingual voting district.
Dutch-speaking Liberals, one of Leterme''s five coalition parties, quit the Cabinet, accusing its Francophone counterparts of blocking a deal to break up the Brussels-area district the constitutional court ruled illegal in 2003.
Leterme offered King Albert the resignation of his government.
The Belgian monarch did not immediately accept it, but began consultations with key politicians on the way forward. In a statement, the royal palace
called a political crisis "inopportune."
Leterme''s government took office March 20, 2008 after a political impasse over a similar and related linguistic spat that lasted 194 days.
Linguistic disputes - rooted in history and economic differences - have long dominated politics in this country of 6.5 (m) million Dutch-speakers and 4 (m) million Francophones.
The nation is mostly divided into Dutch-speaking districts and French-speaking ones, and that determines what single language is used on everything from mortgages and traffic signs to election ballots and divorce papers.
In 2003, Belgium''s Constitutional Court ruled the bilingual Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde voting district illegal because it violates the strict separation of Dutch and French-language districts.
It comprises officially bilingual Brussels but also 20-odd towns in Dutch-speaking Flanders around the capital. Dutch-speaking politicians have long complained the district lets Francophone parties in Brussels win votes in nearby Dutch-speaking Belgium.
After a 194-day political deadlock over this complex, emotional issue in Belgium, Leterme''s alliance of Christian Democrats, Liberals and Socialists
split into Dutch and French-speaking camps - took office March 20, 2008.
But on Wednesday night the coalition failed to find a solution for the bilingual district.
Ex-Belgian premier Jean-Luc Dehaene put forward a deal to break up the district, but Dutch-speaking Liberals accused French-speaking parties of
recalcitrance.
Overall, Belgium has three main regions: Dutch-speaking Flanders in the north, Francophone Wallonia in the south and officially bilingual - but largely French-speaking - Brussels in the middle. The three regions have in the past 25 years acquired ever more autonomy.
It is that tense backdrop that feeds the debate over the contentious voting district.
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