Stalemate, the only show in town

"After 48 weeks, ‘Stalemate’ - a wildly successful comedy - is to get a new run at Belgium’s Theatre Royal.” Brussels daily Le Soir waxes ironic in the wake of the presentation of a report by the latest mediator in the Belgian political crisis, Wouter Beke, to King Albert II. At the end of a two-month mission to devise a new consultative framework to enable the country to finally form a government, there is still no agreement between the Flemish and Walloon parties. The leader of the Christian Democrats, "who is certain he has done a excellent job, claims that we can reach agreement on the reform of the state and the formation of a government in ten weeks," remarks the Brussels daily. "However, the content of the report is still top secret!" Le Soir blames the deadlock which has raised the prospect of "divorce" between the two communities on Flemish nationalist leader Bart De Wever, "who has prolonged the crisis by constantly changing his strategy. On its front page, Flemish daily De Standaard quotes a Confucian proverb cited by Beke: "The man who knows what is just but does not act on it lacks courage," while blaming the Francophone socialist leader for the deadlock: “If Elio Di Rupo is serious about this deadlock, the ticking of the time bomb under Belgium is likely to accelerate.”