Belgian PM stays off work as political crisis simmers
Belgian Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt cancelled Friday a planned return to work after being injured in a car crash, keeping on hold a simmering political crisis threatening his government.
The 51-year-old suffered two broken ribs in the high-speed accident Tuesday, in which his car flipped over after hitting a roadside post, while he was returning to his home in western Belgium.
He had planned to resume work Friday to discuss a crisis over threats by global shipping company DHL, a major local employer, to pull out of Brussels airport due to restrictions on night flights.
But his spokesman said Verhofstadt would not be chairing a cabinet meeting as expected, and would be taking several more days to rest.
“He is still in too much pain and so will not be able to chair” the ministerial meetings, the spokesman was cited by the Belga news agency as saying, adding Verhofstadt had had a “very bad night.”
In his absence deputy prime minister Laurette Onkelinx was called on to chair ministerial discussions.
DHL is backed by the Flemish regional government and trade unions, but Brussels leaders are strongly opposed, pointing to the noise and disruption that would be caused over one of Europe’s most densely populated areas.
Stuck in the middle is Verhofstadt, who was planning to unveil his legislative program and budget for the coming political year but has been working overtime to resolve the DHL dispute.
The Belgian media has taken to speculating that the Flemish prime minister’s government could even fall over the night-flights issue, which has been a perennial political issue in recent years.
