Meanwhile, in an effort to break the impasse, the king has appointed André Flahaut and Danny Pieters, the speakers of the House of Representatives and the Senate respectively, to bring the party leaders back to the table in a more positive frame of mind. Flahaut represents Di Rupo's PS, while Pieters belongs to Bart De Wever's N-VA —- the winner in Flanders of the June elections.

The negotiations broke down over the question of extra subsidies for Brussels, something the city has been demanding for years and which most observers, including the credit rating agency Standard & Poor's, agree is much needed. The Flemish parties insisted that extra funds depended on the splitting of the Brussels- Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV) electoral district and a revision of the financing law that governs the flow of money from the federal level to the regions and the communities.

In this context, the regions - Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels Capital - are important to differentiate from the communities - French-speaking and Flemish. Brussels is a region, but the people who live there belong to one or the other community.

The Flemish parties refused to allow Brus- sels to receive a "blank cheque" and insisted the subsidy - €500 million in the first year - be conditional on a rewriting of the financing law. The proposal from Di Rupo (pictured) had €250 million tied to a renegotiation of the financing law, but made the other €250 million a year conditional only on the splitting of BHV. The Flemish socialists and Greens were willing to accept that, but N-VA and the Christian Democrats (CD&V) party of acting prime minister Yves Leterme (as well as Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters) could not. "The large majority of the parties around the table made it clear they wanted an agreement," said Di Rupo later. "We were very close to the finishing line. We have missed the opportunity to reform the country in a positive way."

The French-speaking side is in no hurry to see the financing law changed because it would almost inevitably lead to a smaller subsidy for Brussels. Di Rupo admitted that the French-speaking side may have been deaf to Flemish concerns in the past but that now the reverse seems to be the case. "Apparently we didn't hear the mes- sage being sent to us clearly enough in the past," he said. "But today we realise that some Flemish parties in turn are making that same mistake, refusing to understand what it is the French-speaking parties are defending."

Di Rupo described the Flemish intransigence over the refinancing question as a willingness to see Brussels and Wallonia "pauperised". And he maintained that De Wever had gone back on an earlier pledge not to raise the financing law question.

De Wever denied this. "I met a wall of resistance," he said. "I can only conclude that [reform of the financing law] wasn't what they wanted. They don't want fiscal autonomy. They don't want to be respon- sible for their own expenditure. They just see it as ‘people getting poorer'. I can't accept that."

For all that it ended in chaos, the negotiations did manage to find some common ground on most subjects:

> The splitting of the BHV, leaving the Halle-Vilvoorde portion as a Flemish electoral district, with Brussels as a district on its own

> The creation of the High Level Group to set up the review of the financing law, with one representative of each party and two experts, as well as support from the National Bank

>A timetable for reform of the financing law: first report in October, second in January, final report and political decision in March 2011

> Powers over spending of €15 billion transferred from the federal government to the regions

> A series of measures regarding Brussels, including a new community commission to oversee the payment of child support and part of health care, and proposals to ensure bilingual reception in police stations and hospitals

> A three-region agreement covering roads, mobility and public works in and around the capital

According to the French-speaking parties, those sections of the talks can now be reset to zero: what may seem to have been agreed now falls with the rest of the negotiations. "This is regrettable for every- one who was looking for a solution," said Caroline Gennez, chair of the Flemish so- cialists.

"We worked hard to find a solution," said Wouter Beke, chairman of CD&V, "but in the end it seems it was impossible."