Belgium Spent 541 Days Without a Government

On June 13, 2010, Belgium held a general election. The Flemish nationalist party N-VA finished first, the Walloon Socialist Party second, and no combination of parties on either side of the Dutch–French language line could form a stable majority. Five months later, Belgium had no government. A year later, it still had no government. The next cabinet was sworn in 541 days after the vote, on December 6, 2011, under Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.

The caretaker prime minister, Yves Leterme, stayed at his desk through all of it. He had resigned in April 2010 over a different dispute — a long-running fight over splitting the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district — but the constitution required him to keep running the country until a successor was sworn in. By the time he finally handed over, he had been a "resigned" PM for 589 days.

The deadlock was about Belgium itself. The Flemish-speaking north and the French-speaking south fund their own regions but share the federal level: a country sized like New Jersey, divided into three regional parliaments, six governments, and a Brussels region that the other two argue over. Splitting BHV meant who, in some Flemish suburbs of Brussels, would be allowed to vote in French. Funding Brussels meant who paid. Every coalition arithmetic crashed on it.

The country, meanwhile, ran. Tax collection continued. Soldiers stayed deployed abroad. Students at several universities staged half-joking protests — handing out free fries, vowing not to shave until a government was formed.

On June 1, 2011, Belgium broke the previous record of 353 days, held by Cambodia in 2003–04. Guinness logged it.