Of Pits & Pills

Across Belgium last week, doctors 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.

For most of the week the government had no time to worry about the doctors. It was trying to avert major violence in the "black triangle" mining district in 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 off.

When the government finally got back to the doctors' 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, and submitted his resignation to King Baudouin. That pleased the doctors, who declared that they would not strike if the government resigned. But at week's end the King refused to accept Premier Harmel's resignation, and once again the danger of a doctors' strike was imminent.

This file is automatically generated by a robot program, so reader's discretion is required.