After the June 2010 election, Belgium went 541 days without a federal government. That is a Guinness World Record for the longest peacetime period without one. The previous record holder was Iraq, at 289 days. Belgium did not narrowly beat it. A caretaker government kept the country running the entire time. Bins were emptied, trains ran, taxes were collected. It happened again in 2019–20: 493 days. Belgium has, in effect, made a habit of its own record.
