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Senator: To Break Deadlock, Don't Sleep With Politicians

Marleen Temmerman urges politicians' partners to say 'no coalition, no sex'

By Rob Quinn, Newser Staff

Posted Feb 9, 2011 3:01 AM CST

(Newser) – Would Belgium's politicians have dithered over forming a government for 241 days if they weren't getting any? Socialist senator Marleen Temmerman thinks not. She has urged the bed partners of the country's politicians to "keep their legs closed" until the deadlock is broken and a coalition government is finally formed, the Telegraph reports. She says a similar strike helped break a political impasse in Kenya.

Belgium has been without a government since last May, and is closing in on the world record of 249 days without elected lawmakers forming a government, which was set by Iraq last year. One of Temmerman's colleagues, a Christian Democrat senator, rejected her colleague's call. "I don't want to take part in a sex strike," she said. "Politicians are not there to strike; on the contrary, politicians are there to arouse the country."

Protesting women show off their beards in the 'Grow a Beard for Belgium' campaign, which calls for Belgian men to grow their beards until Belgium forms a government. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

A woman hold aloft Belgium's a sign at a rally in Brussels last month. (AP Photo/Yves Logghe)

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Senator: To Break Deadlock, Don't Sleep With Politicians

Marleen Temmerman urges politicians' partners to say 'no coalition, no sex'

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