Cats in Belgium ... and less important matters

The Guardian has a rather, shall we say, special way of looking at the world ... and of course I value it greatly. But it is extraordinarily Brito-centric. So, while attempts to form a federal government in Belgium are floundering, the Guardian could hardly be expected to make that it's main story about Belgium. No, there's something else that they know the bulk of their readership will find far more important: the impending doom for Belgium's burgeoning cat population.

Belgium plans to neuter most cats as feline population explodes

Almost all Belgian cat owners will be obliged to have their pets
sterilised and registered by 2016

Guardian, 3 September 2010

Still, I learned something I didn't know.

Cat culls have a long history in Belgium. In Ypres, in western Flanders, they've been hurling the animals from the belfry of the 12th-century Cloth Hall for hundreds of years in an annual ritual to ward off the devil.

The massacre continues, now every three years. But nowadays the cats are fluffy, velveteen toys.

Bagpuss is horrified. He's wondering whether it might be better to throw politicians from the belfry instead.

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However, for those whose who might be interested in what's happening in Belgian politics, the answer is that the talks to form a federal government have now collapsed. The situation last weekend has developed in these ways. Di Rupo offered to split the extra finance he wanted for Brussels into two parts: €250m a year now, set alongside splitting Brussels Halle-Vilvoorde; and €250m a year as a fixed part of any future deal on a new funding formula for the three regions. De Wever said he would only accept immediate additional funding for Brussels if it was for a maximum of two years, with no fixed sum pre-allocated to Brussels in whatever new deal was agreed. So Di Rupo went back to the king to tender his resignation as preformateur for a second time.

A selection of reports is here.

What happens next? My guess is that things will cool down for a while, so as to see what less formal, unofficial talks might yield. However, it isn't quite fair to understand this as only a Flanders vs Wallonia issue, it is also a matter of simple right vs left politics. Both the big parties in Flanders are centre-right, so the financial reform they want is as much about overall deficit and debt reduction (and the balance to be struck between reducing services or increasing taxes to pay for it, and how quickly) as it is about sharing spending between the three regions.

But the choices are stark. Either a compromise deal is done and a federal government formed or, if no deal can be done, Flanders and Wallonia will have to separate. But there's no rush, it can wait another month or so.