Belgian King Albert II finally swore in a new government after 541 days of political gridlock that left Brussels leaderless . . . the gridlock was broken after Standard & Poor’s downgraded Belgium’s credit rating to AA from AA+ on November 25 as Belgium’s debt has reached 97% of its gross domestic product . . . the new Prime Minister Elio di Rupo promised to cut $15 billion in order to reduce the deficit to 2.8 percent of GDP over the next three years . . . the socialist led coalition consists of six parties, which control 96 out of 150 seats in the Belgian chamber of deputies and will remain in office until mid-2014 . . . as a native French speaker di Rupo will face challenges from the wealthier northern region of Flanders, whose people speaks Dutch and support the right-wing and separatist New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) party, which is the largest party in Belgium . . . the tough austerity measures are likely to prompt protests and could be difficult to implement if the EU slides back into a recession.