While inhabitants of the EU's Brussels bubble obsessed over the messy aftermath of the European Parliament election, another set of votes on the same day has left their host country in protracted political limbo.

This week, politicians in Flanders took steps to piece together one part of Belgium's post-election puzzle. But their efforts look likely to make finishing the whole jigsaw more difficult. The country that once famously went more than a year without a government may have a chance of breaking that record.

Since elections on May 26 to the federal parliament and other levels of government, only the Brussels region and the German-speaking community have managed to form new administrations. The regional states of Flanders and Wallonia and the federal government are all still in the hands of caretaker governments.

Flanders, the Dutch-speaking economically powerful north of the country, moved a step closer to getting a government when Flemish nationalists, liberals and Christian Democrats agreed to begin coalition talks. Former Belgian Interior Minister Jan Jambon has been designated by the right-wing New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) to lead the new government.

If those talks succeed, Flanders will continue to be governed by the same coalition as last time, only with a much smaller majority. All of the would-be governing parties lost seats, mainly at the expense of the far-right Vlaams Belang party.

N-VA leader Bart De Wever suggested the current impasse means Belgium could be in for a long wait before it gets its next government.

For the sake of consistency, Belgian parties prefer to replicate their regional alliances at national level. But that will be difficult for the trio of parties that aim to keep governing Flanders.

Last time around, they banded together with the Francophone liberal Reformist Movement led by Charles Michel to form a federal government. This time, such an alliance would not have enough seats to form a majority. So opting to continue the three-party coalition in Flanders makes forming a national government more complicated.

The N-VA has made clear it would at least like to talk to the Francophone Socialist Party (PS) about the possibility of a coalition at national level. But PS leader Elio Di Rupo quickly poured cold water on that idea.

"The PS wants fairer and more social policies, also at the federal level," he tweeted in response to the N-VA's Flemish coalition plans. “It would be an illusion to think that the PS would help the outgoing [right-wing] coalition partners to form a new government.”

N-VA leader Bart De Wever suggested the current impasse means Belgium could be in for a long wait before it gets its next government and hit back at Di Rupo for not being open to talks.

"There was a time when people thought that 100 days [without a government, in 2010-2011] was an existential crisis in this country. Today I predict that 100 days will pass without the first talks … even taking place,” De Wever told broadcaster VRT on Tuesday, urging other parties to be open to talks.

"We need to file a budget, the economic outlook is bad, the eurozone could go into a crisis again, not to mention Brexit. We are sitting and waiting for 78 days because people seem uninterested in having serious talks or have a strategy to destroy the largest party in the country [the N-VA]," he declared. "It’s either one or the other."

'Trench warfare'

But some observers say De Wever's stance, and his party's calls to move Belgium from a federal to a confederal system — giving Flanders more power and weakening the central government — mean he is the one making the formation of a national government more difficult. The N-VA has a long-term goal of gaining independence for Flanders.

Bart Sturtewagen, chief commentator at Flemish newspaper De Standaard, wrote this week that De Wever is preparing for "trench warfare at the federal level."

N-VA remains committed to its goal of taking Flanders out of Belgium and creating a "Europe of regions."

In another sign that the party is stressing the goal of independence, the N-VA proposed in a note published Monday as a "starting point" for coalition talks that "regions in Europe that become independent democratically, can, if they chose, retain full EU membership.”

That is not the position of the EU, which has previously made clear that any country that gained independence from a member state would have to apply separately for membership.

The N-VA's move is a long shot aimed, observers say, at appeasing hard-line elements within the party. But the demand is a sign the nationalist party — which won 25 percent in the Flanders regional election in May, with the far-right Vlaams Belang close on its heels — remains committed to its goal of taking Flanders out of Belgium and creating a "Europe of regions."

“This phrase is unlikely to make it into the coalition agreement,” said Steven Van Hecke, a professor in European politics at KU Leuven, noting that both the N-VA's would-be partners are politically affiliated with Spanish parties strongly opposed to Catalan independence.

Carl Devos, a professor in political science at Ghent University, said the phrase could only make it into a coalition agreement in some kind of toned-down form. “And from there it is still a long way to changing EU policies,” he added.

Meanwhile, Michel continues to govern as a caretaker prime minister at the federal level, as he prepares to take up a new role as president of the European Council on November 1. But his administration is supported by only 38 out of 150 representatives in the Belgian chamber.

Among his tasks is to nominate Belgium's next European commissioner. Ideally, the nominee would come from a party that will be in the next government. But with the political makeup of the next administration so unclear, that is no easy mission.

According to Devos, Michel’s own liberal family has the best chances of ending up in government, but nominating a liberal could spark blowback, especially when Michel himself has already bagged a plum EU job.

“It will be especially important for Michel to maximize the legitimacy of his decision by involving as many party presidents as possible,” Devos added.