120 Days and Counting

"Functioning government? We don't need no stinkin' functioning government!"
- possible quote by nearly all Belgian politicians.

Yup, that's politics, a la Belge. They held national elections here 4 months ago and some party or another won. Not that it matters. As if things aren't complicated enough in this tiny country, you have two separate sets of parties, one set in the north speaking Dutch, and the other in the south speaking French. This doubles the possibilities when it comes to procrastinating, name calling, wasting money, and generally letting a nation go to hell in a hand bag.
So, 4 months later, there is still no functioning government in Brussels. Rather poor timing, considering that Belgium presently holds the 6-month, rotating European Union presidency. When they took over in early July, the Belgians claimed to want to pursue an "ambitious program." Right now, just agreeing on who the heck the prime minister is might be ambitious enough.
Who is actually running the country? A "caretaker" administration, primarily made up of members of the previous administration. Kinda takes the sting out of losing an election if you know that, say for the better part of a year, you don't have to move out of your office and take up a real job. Good work if you can find it.