[4][5] The CD&V/N-VA caused a minor controversy when they immediately agreed with Reynders to stall constitutional reform until after the coinciding regional and European elections of 2009.
[6] Reynders talked to, among others, Guy Quaden, the Governor of the National Bank of Belgium, Joaquín Almunia, the European Commissioner for Economic & Financial Affairs, Herman De Croo, Anne-Marie Lizin, the leaders of trade unions and employers' organisations and several senior civil servants.
Following the informateur's report, King Albert II on July 5 asked former Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene to accept a "mediation and negotiation assignment" in order to prepare the ground for the formateur and to look into the possibility of state reform.
He also wanted to keep several nuclear power stations open longer, build 1,500 additional prison cells, and establish an emergency budget for the FPS Justice to hire more people.
Coalition talks at Valley of the Duchess proceeded with much difficulty due to differences between Flemish and Francophone parties over constitutional reform, with communitarian tensions reaching a high on Thursday August 16.
Negotiator for Humanist Democratic Centre Francis Delpérée described the situation with the following words: "Il y a un parfum de crise" (English: There is a whiff of crisis).
The next day the King received the chairpersons of the two other orange-blue parties, Bart Somers (Open Vld) and Joëlle Milquet (CDH), in order to attempt to defuse the tensions.
[18] Following Yves Leterme's resignation, King Albert asked Didier Reynders, the chairman of the Francophone liberal party MR and erstwhile informateur, to seek a way out of the stalemate.
[19] At first, the Vlaamse Radio- en Televisieomroep (VRT) reported that Philippe Maystadt or Melchior Wathelet would probably take over, either as informateur or as royal mediator.
[21] It was later reported that, according to observers, King Albert would probably ask Raymond Langendries (CDH) and Herman De Croo (Open Vld) to mediate.
The Open VLD also held a press conference in which Bart Somers called the remarks about De Croo "inconvenient and unseen".
[29] The following day, the King received three more ministers of State: Raymond Langendries (Humanist Democratic Centre), Herman De Croo (Open VLD) and Louis Michel (MR).
[30] Following consultations with a number of ministers of State, King Albert received Herman Van Rompuy (CD&V), the outgoing President of the Chamber of Representatives, and charged him with an exploratory mission in order to find a solution to the political crisis.
Other politicians, such as Flemish minister-president Kris Peeters (CD&V) and federal minister of Internal Affairs Patrick Dewael (Open VLD) participated in the event, but did not comment on BHV.
Filip Dewinter of the Vlaams Belang proposed to have an earlier plenary session in the Flemish parliament to discuss the communitarian crisis, a request that was granted.
Marie Arena (PS) and Joëlle Milquet (CDH) interpreted Leterme's remark as making the Flemish youth believe Walloon parties are only interested in money and could be bribed.
Guy Quaden, president of the National Bank of Belgium, warned on September 13 that the long duration of negotiations were not without a price as much-needed measures in the domains of budget, competition and employment are still not taken.
Belgian Minister of State Louis Tobback and Trends journalist Geert Noels blamed the Euro for allowing the formation talks to last this long.
[51] On August 31, the magazine Knack reported that talks were taking place to include the francophone Socialist Party (PS) in a tripartite coalition.
[55] MR and CDH proposed that Van Rompuy would include issues such as the federal budget, justice and social-economic matters in his exploratory mandate.
Chairman Pieter De Crem (Christian Democratic and Flemish) of the Belgian Chamber Committee on the Interior had decided to go ahead with a vote on the split of electoral district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
The committee would consist of prominent politicians of the Christian-democratic, liberal, socialist and green parties, who together have a two-thirds majority in both the Chamber of Representatives and the Senate.
[78][79] Party spokesman Peter Poulussen denounced the reports as "pure speculation,"[80] and Open VLD and MR rejected the idea of a tripartite government.
Flemish Interior Minister Marino Keulen (Open VLD) announced on November 14 that he had decided not to appoint the French-speaking mayors of Kraainem, Linkebeek and Wezembeek-Oppem, three municipalities with linguistic facilities in the Flemish Periphery of Brussels, because they had sent letters of convocation (letters calling citizens to vote and informing them where their polling station is) in French for the 2006 municipal elections and the 2007 federal election.
[84] The three mayors also violated language legislation by allowing French to be spoken during the meetings of the municipal councils of Kraainem, Linkebeek and Wezembeek-Oppem on Monday 22 October 2007, which Minister Marino Keulen described as a provocation.
[85] The Francophone political parties put forth a united declaration in the Walloon parliament on November 16, calling the act by Flemish minister Keulen "a rejection of democracy."
[87] A confused week of negotiations started on 26 November 2007 with an agreement proposed by Yves Leterme and immediately accepted by CDH, MR, FDF and OpenVLD.
[93] Verhofstadt started his information round on December 4, talking to the chairmen of the Belgian Senate and Chamber of Representatives, Herman Van Rompuy and Armand De Decker respectively.
The move was followed in the afternoon by a call for francophone unity by PS head Elio Di Rupo that announced it will not take part in a Government without CDH.
Later in the afternoon, CD&V head Jo Vandeurzen and Yves Leterme requested a meeting with Verhofstadt where they call for an inclusion of CDH in the coalition.