Fed up with the lack of a national government to rule the country, a senator in Belgium has called upon the spouses of politicians to withhold sex until the political parties agree to work together.

 

Belgium has gone more than 240 days without the formation of a governing coalition, since elections last June left no clear winner among the parties. Other than Somalia, which hasn’t had a functioning central government since the 1990s, only Iraq has witnessed a longer stretch of political vacancy (249 days).

 

Borrowing from Kenya, which endured a similar problem last year, socialist senator Marleen Temmerman called for a sex ban until Belgium’s party leaders can figure out how to rule together.

 

“I call on the spouses of all negotiators to withhold sex until a deal is reached,” Temmerman told a Belgian newspaper. “Have no more sex until the new administration is posing on the steps of the Palace.”

 

Catherine Fonck, a senator from the Centre Democratic Humanist party, didn’t care for Temmerman’s suggestion. “I don’t want to take part in a sex strike,” Fonck said. “Politicians are not there to strike; on the contrary, politicians are there to arouse the country.”

-Noel Brinkerhoff

 

Sex Ban Suggested for Belgian Coalition Negotiators (BBC News)

Belgian Senator Calls on 'Sex Strike' Until Political Deadlock Is Broken (by Brune Waterfield, The Telegraph)

Iraq Sets Record for Longest Time without Forming a Government after an Election (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Kenyan Sex Boycott Update (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)

Sex Strike in Kenya (by Noel Brinkerhoff, AllGov)