Coalition put under pressure by allegations of corruption

Date: 05/12/1996

By Rory Watson

A HEADY cocktail of alleged corruption in high places and increasing public mistrust of politicians and the judiciary is undermining the authority of Belgian Premier Jean-Luc Dehaene's coalition government.

The combination is spawning deep friction between the two major coalition parties - the Dutch-speaking Social Christians (CVP) and the French-speaking Socialists (PS) - and comes at the very time when the government is implementing a tough budgetary policy to try to satisfy the entry requirements for the euro.

Whether the two parties can put their partnership back on a more harmonious footing will become clearer next Monday (9 December), when the country's Supreme Court will rule on whether the deputy prime minister, French Socialist Elio Di Ripo, must answer allegations of paedophilia levelled against him.

Di Rupo has consistently denied the accusations and has won widespread support, including firm backing from Dehaene himself. But the minister would be forced to resign from office if the Supreme Court decides he must reply to the charges.

The various tensions come as the country continues to suffer the aftershocks of the discovery of a paedophile network, and public respect for the political and legal professions is at a new low.

They could hardly come at a more awkward time for Dehaene as he charts a course towards the euro.

The government is preparing to implement yet another set of austerity measures in the new year. As a defence against any unforeseen parliamentary rebellion blowing the government off its rigorous course, Dehaene has also persuaded his colleagues to allow him to implement budgetary measures by decree for up to a year.

That strategy could be threatened if the government is embarrassed by further allegations or revelations. This would not only weaken the coalition, but also strengthen hostility among the public towards the economic sacrifices they are being asked to make for the sake of economic and monetary union.

But Dehaene's room for manoeuvre is limited. The opposition Liberals, who - along with the Greens and the extreme right in Flanders - have the most to gain from the government's discomfort, make unlikely coalition partners since their economic policies would cause severe friction with the country's unions.

Apart from its political difficulties, the government is still digesting the failure of its policy to lower public debt by raising over 50 million ecu through the sale of many of the prestigious properties and sites which it owns in Brussels and rents out to various Union institutions.

Opponents argued that the initiative owed more to short-term single currency requirements and less to longer-term considerations of prestige and lucrative rents. Property developers were equally unexcited. Several premises failed to reach the asking price and the government raised just three-quarters of the sum it had hoped for.