Word: harmeling
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...quietly packed their black satchels, gassed up their autos and made sure that their passports were in order. They were preparing to flee into neighboring Holland or France and thus plunge Belgium into its second doctors' strike in less than two years, unless the government of Premier Pierre Harmel agreed to require patients to pay fees for doctors' services in the country's six Socialist-run clinics...
...eastern Belgium. Miners had gone on a rampage after the government gave notice that it was closing down the uneconomic Zwartberg mine, which employs 4,000. The riots lasted three days and a miner and a miner's son were killed in clashes with state police before Premier Harmel sent in 350 soldiers to restore order. The government finally brought calm by promising that the mine would not be closed until all the miners either had new jobs or had been pensioned...
...problems, it found itself terribly divided. Ever since it came to office six months ago, after one of the longest Cabinet crises (65 days) in Belgian history, the coalition of 15 Christian Socialists and twelve Socialists has been unable to agree on how to deal with the doctors. Harmel's Christian Socialists favor a lenient stand toward the physicians, while the Socialists would like to trim the doctors down to size. Remembering that the last doctors' strike lasted 18 days and ended in a retreat by both sides, Harmel decided to quit before the fighting even began...
...itself an eloquent example of disunity. It is so torn by the linguistic rivalries of Dutch-speaking Flemings and French-speaking Walloons that outsiders sometimes wonder how the country stays together at all. Last week one of the longest Cabinet crises in Belgian history (65 days) ended when Pierre Harmel, 54, wearily patched together a government and received the seal of office from King Baudouin...
Last May the plan was overwhelmingly rejected when voters handed the ruling coalition a stunning setback in national elections. Harmel, a law professor and one of the rare Walloons who speak Dutch, is an expert on the problem, therefore seemed a likely choice to revive the battered coalition. He still hopes to win support for language reform. The issue is far from settled. Shortly before the new Premier took office, 80 Flemings stalked out of a church in the Flemish seaside resort of Ostend when the priest began the Mass in French for vacationing Walloons...