Power in unity

Belgium's permanent government, formed after 9 months of rather constipated effort, is falling apart after having functioned for 4 months. Not a very good efficiency coefficient. The Prime Minister Yves Leterme handed in his resignation yesterday.

It is kind of funny that Belgium's motto is literally "Unity creates Strength". In German, one of the three official languages, it is "Einigkeit macht stark", which nowadays sounds almost as grimly self-ironic as "Arbeit macht frei".

To add a minor insult to the major one, there just was a small earthquake there, as if the country literally wants to fall apart.

The resignation has yet to be accepted by the king, and the politicians are already arguing over whether to form a new caretaker government or have a new election.