2007–08 Belgian government formation partition of Belgium. On November 6, the formation talks became the longest in Belgian history. When the Parliament confirmed the formation of an interim Government, it had been 196 days since the Belgian people had voted out the previous coalition. It was the second longest formation period in European history, after the Dutch record of 208 days in 1977. Talks were interrupted twice by the resignation of the "formateur", which left the political parties waiting for a new appointment by the King. Guy Verhofstadt was appointed as mediator on December 3, with the task not only of looking into the
2010 United Kingdom government formation do". The possibility of some SNP involvement in a Labour-led government materialised when Angus Robertson, the SNP's leader in the House of Commons suggested its MPs would be willing to join Labour, the Liberal Democrats, Plaid Cymru and MPs from other smaller parties to form a rainbow coalition. It was reported on 10 May that a meeting to discuss this scenario was held between Robertson, the SNP Chief Whip Stewart Hosie and Cabinet Office officials the previous evening. However, Labour's Douglas Alexander said he could not foresee a situation in which Labour could enter into government with the SNP because