Stunning news from Western Europe today…

The government of Belgium has collapsed. For years now, the French and Dutch speaking citizens have been at odds concerning autonomy and local governance. Back in July, the government announced its resignation. Officials from several of the elected parties could not reach an agreement on how much separation should be between its French-speaking citizens (in Wallonia) and its Dutch-speaking citizens (in Flanders).

But since the global economic crisis, things have come quickly to a head. The government made a controversial move to bail out the belleaguered financial group, Fortis (FORB:Brussels) back in October 2008. It cost investors a lot of money and has lead to the unravelling of the entire government.

Today, the Belgian king accepted the resignation of the government. Yes, the entire government.

So what does this mean?

It means a new “coalition” will step in and deal with all the problems the old government couldn’t handle, from the down-and-dirty autonomy discussions to the immense financial problems that no one in the world can get a jump on. (Right now, anyway.)

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