Belgium breaks Iran's record of 249 days without a government

London, Feb 17 (ANI): Belgium is now officially ahead of Iran - the European state has been functioning without a government for more than 249 days.

This happened after the Belgian federal MPs responsible for the deadlock pocketed a pay and perks rise of over 2,500 pounds.

Over the last year, personal income for MPs, including pay and perks, increased to 87,300 pounds, a figure that rose to 143,000 pounds when parliamentary and other allowances were taken into account.

Online campaigners have warned the MPs that if the political situation continues till the end of April, when the last government fell, then mass protests will demand "their money back".

"If the political parties fail we demand that they pay back all the public money they've received since June 2010," the Telegraph quoted a manifesto at www.camping16.be, which has the support of 152,000 people, as saying.

"After all, why should we pay all these people all this money while they're refusing to do the job we asked them to do?" (ANI)