Belgium celebrates World Record Negotiating to get a new Government [Ghent, February 17th, 2011]
More than 250 days now since the elections in Belgium - and there is still no government. A world record - so time to have a party ! This event made it into the news around the world, making it the cheapest and most effective promotion campaign for Belgium yet. Or how everything has a silver lining !
More than 10,000 people gathered in Ghent - to enjoy concerts, drinks (jenever) and a lot of other events to mark this special day. It reminds of the street scenes in for Eastern Europe. Some students celebrated the worldrecord by stripping down to their underwear... Belgian flags were everywhere - to show the people's commitment to save "Belgium" and not let the country split into a 'Flemish' and a 'Walloon' region...
And all of this while the world was watching... Iraq was the prior world record holder - but now Belgium has taken the lead in the longest negotation to form a new government. Countries like Egypt and Tunis should better get prepared for these downsides of democrazy - sometimes democratic elections don't make it easier to govern a country !
A full set of pictures can be found at De Morgen.
Some samples...
World Wide Press coverage:
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