If tiny Belgium splits in two, the European Union has a signal warning at its doorstep: Unresponsive government's fissures eventually turn into major breaches and perhaps even bring about the state's destruction. Unless, that is, it starts responding to the will of the people. That is true even in a 177-year-old federation which has figured in Western history's major episodes since the days of Metternich.

Three months have passed since Belgium's elections, and no government has formed. About 60 percent of Belgians are Dutch-speaking Flemings, concentrated in the wealthier north (Flanders), while about 30 percent are French-speaking Walloons, mostly in the poorer, more socialistic south. As our Europe Watch columnist, Paul Belien, explained Wednesday in this section, for decades a deliberate "frenchification" of Belgium has been underway, buttressed by the country's underrepresentative political arrangements which hand a de facto veto over policy to the minority Parti Socialiste, Wallonia's largest party. Francophone political figures have admitted that French-speaking North African immigrants were admitted without background investigations in support of "frenchification." Meanwhile, the Flemish are hit squarely in the pocketbook.