The
partition of Belgium, or the dissolution of the
Belgian state
through the separation of the Dutch-speaking peoples of the Flanders region from the French-speaking peoples of the Walloon Region
, granting them either independence or respective
accession to the Netherlands
and France
, is
recurrently discussed in Belgian and international media.
The concept is rooted in the long-standing ethnic and
socio-economic tensions between the two communities as well as the
geographic and cultural continuity of Wallonia with France and that
of Flanders with the Netherlands.
Overview
The
territories corresponding to the modern Belgian, Dutch and Luxembourgish
states are collectively called the Low Countries. They emerged at the end
of the
Middle Ages as a set of more or
less independent
fiefdoms loosely linked to
the
Kingdom of France and
the
Holy Roman Empire.
The
southern part of this region — the Southern Netherlands, the Prince-Bishopric
of Liège
, the Imperial Abbey of
Stavelot-Malmedy
and the Duchy of Bouillon
— was partitioned both politically (into many
fiefdoms), and linguistically (into the Romanic and Germanic sprachraums). The feudal borders did not
match the linguistic borders, and some fiefdoms were divided into
Francophone and Germanic regions. However, the ruling aristocracy,
which usually spoke languages other than the population, did not
much bother about these language-related disparities. After the
1581 secession of the
Dutch Republic
in the northern Low Countries, French progressively emerged in the
Southern Netherlands under the
influence of the
Habsburg nobility and,
later, of the French invasions, as the
upper
class language, not only at the court but also in the
administration and in the political circles.
Antagonism between speakers of French and Dutch increased after the
independence of Belgium in 1830,
when residents of the Southern Netherlands and their exclusively
French-speaking political elite rebelled against the newfound
hegemony of the northern provinces of the
United Kingdom of the
Netherlands. Major European powers were divided in opinion over
the fallout of the revolution. Ultimately, the state of Belgium,
composed of provinces of both French-speaking and Dutch-speaking
people, gained independence as a
buffer
state between France and the Netherlands. French became the
sole
official
language. Dutch speakers demanded equal rights beginning in the
late 19th century, but these were only introduced gradually
throughout the 20th century. While postage stamps became bilingual
in 1893, it was not until 1967 that an official Dutch version of
the
Constitution was
accepted. Since independence,
socio-economic imbalances have fueled
resentment between the two communities.
Since the 1960s, separate regions have been created based on the
country's linguistic division. As a result, minorities in certain
areas (in and around Brussels and along the language border) claim
to be disenfranchised in local government and services. Along with
the usual left–right political division, there is also a linguistic
division, causing a
double party system
which complicates coalition creation on the national level. The
recent crisis over the
formation of a
coalition government in the aftermath of the
2007 elections, coupled with
the unsolved problem of the
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral
district and the rise of extremist political parties, has given a
fresh impetus to the issue, with recent opinion polls showing
sizable support for a partition. However, support for a unified
state remains among the majority of Belgium's people.
Pro-Belgians will
claim that the monarchy, strong national institutions and the
geopolitical importance of the linguistically and ethnically mixed
Brussels
serve as
unifying elements, while anti-Belgians will rather claim these
factors (and the considerable state
debt) serve merely as obstacles to an inevitable
partition.
Regional demographics
[[Image:Communities of
Belgium.svg|thumb|Communities:
Flemish
and French Community
]]
|
[[Image:Regions of
Belgium.svg|thumb|Regions:
]]
|
As no
census exists, there are no official
statistics on Belgium's three official languages or their dialects.
Various criteria, including the language(s) of parents, of
education, or the second-language status of foreign born, may
affect suggested figures. An estimated 59% of the Belgian
population speaks
Dutch (often
colloquially referred to as
Flemish), and
French is spoken by 40%.
Total Dutch speakers
number 6.23 million, concentrated in the northern Flanders
region, while French speakers comprise 3.32 million
in Wallonia
and an estimated 870,000 or 85%, of the officially
bilingual Brussels-Capital Region
. The German-speaking
Community is made up of 73,000 people in the east of Wallonia; around 10,000 German and 60,000 Belgian nationals
are speakers of German.
Roughly 23,000 more of German speakers live in municipalities near
the official Community.
*
*
[[Image:Languages spoken at home in the Brussels Capital Region
(2006).svg|thumb|Languages spoken at home in Brussels (Capital
Region, 2006)
]]The Capital Region having bilingual status obliges its
authorities to attend to people and organisations in French or
Dutch language as these prefer, and to show street names in both
languages on the plates, but does not allow a bilingual school as
education belongs to either the
French Community or the
Flemish one. Geographically, it
is an
enclave in the Flemish Region though
near Wallonia. Constitutionally, it is a politically-distinct
Region, while within its boundaries both the Flemish and French
Communities exercise their authority. Historically,
the local language of Brussels was
Dutch, and Dutch remained the vernacular language of a majority
of inhabitants until around 1950. Now Dutch is mainly spoken by
approximately 150,000 residents, or a 15% minority at most. The
city has strong economic ties with surrounding Flanders, and many
Dutch-speakers commute to Brussels for work, but at the same time
the expanding suburbs of Brussels have created some French-speaking
majority areas in Flanders.
Feudal borders
The territory of Belgium is the southern part of the historical
region called
Low Countries. The Low
Countries emerged at the end of the Middle Ages as a very loose
political
confederation of
fiefdoms ruled in
personal
union by the
House of
Habsburg: the
Seventeen
Provinces.
The largest components of this union were the
Duchy of Brabant, the County of Flanders, the County of
Hainaut
and the Duchy of
Luxembourg. The Prince-Bishopric of Liège was almost an enclave within the Seventeen
Provinces. The prince-bishopric was not formally included in
the Habsburgs' dominion but was, since
Emperor Charles V, strongly
influenced by its Habsburg neighbors. The border which emerged
after the
Dutch Revolt and the
Eighty Years' War split the Seventeen
Provinces into the
Dutch Republic and
the
Spanish Netherlands. In
particular Brabant and Flanders were divided into northern and
southern components. Though the different fiefdoms building the
Southern Netherlands were more or less ruled by one reigning House
only, all of them were quite distinct of each other. Different
traditions and
dialects of Dutch and
Walloon appeared. Within the
largest fiefdoms like Liège, Flanders and Luxembourg, several
distinct languages and dialects were in use.
The feudal borders partitioning Belgium during the
Ancien Régime have nothing in common with
the partitioning lines which currently separate the Belgian federal
entities. The French disbanded these feudal entities and replaced
them by
departments
during the French occupation from 1794 to 1815. The new entities or
departments mirrored, approximately, the language border. For
instance the new division separated the bilingual kernel of the
Prince-Bishopric of Liège into two more or less monolingual
regions.
The only major exceptions were the bilingual
Dyle
and Forêts
departments. The departments would eventually become the
provinces of the United Kingdom of the
Netherlands and later on of Belgium. The
name of the
provinces were
inspired by the roughly corresponding medieval fiefdoms.
In
particular, the Dyle department became the province of
Brabant
, that is the most southern part of the older
duchy of Brabant.
In 1815, the territory now constituting Belgium was incorporated
into the
United
Kingdom of the Netherlands, which had been created to
rehabilitate and consolidate the former Seventeen Provinces and
serve as a
buffer against any
expansionist ambitions of France. However, this placed the Catholic
Belgian provinces, including French-speaking Wallonia, under
Dutch-majority rule and a
Calvinist Dutch
king. The Belgians had little influence over their lives and
resented Dutch control and domination over economic, political and
social institutions, sentiment that culminated in revolution in
1830.
Belgium, French partition plan,
1830
Major
European powers (which included France, Prussia and the United Kingdom
) were divided over their response to the revolution
of the Belgian people against the Dutch royal authorities.
France favored the secession of Belgium from the Netherlands,
hoping to annex all or at least part of the area, which was also
the aim of most of the Belgian insurgents. After this proposal had
been rejected by the other European powers, which supported the
continued union of the Netherlands,
Talleyrand, the
French ambassador to the United Kingdom, proposed a
partition of the Southern
Netherlands (most areas of modern Belgium).
To this end, the
parts of the provinces of Liège
, of Limburg and of Namur
east of the Meuse river as well as the cities of
Maastricht and Liège
and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
would go to Prussia.
Part of
the province of East
Flanders
, nearly all
of the province of Brabant
, the province of Hainaut
and the province of Namur west of the Meuse would
be assigned to France. The province of Antwerp
— except the city of Antwerp
itself — and the province of Limburg, west of the Meuse
river —
except Maastricht
— would remain with the Netherlands, as would a
small part of the province of Brabant, the former Oranje Lordship
of Diest
.
West Flanders
, most of East Flanders, including Zeeuws-Vlaanderen
, and the city of Antwerp were to form the Free State of Antwerp, under
British protection.
However, this plan was rejected and Belgium was established as an
essential buffer state to check the ambitions of France. Wallonia
and Flanders were unified as one state under a German prince,
Leopold I of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha. A historian of the
Belgian revolution said that "in Belgium, there are parties and
provinces, but no nation. Like a tent erected for one night, the
new monarchy, after sheltering us from the tempest, will disappear
without a trace."
Language border
The dialects in the Low
Countries
The
language border separating the
Germanic and Romance sprachraums moved
over the centuries which preceded the establishment of the Belgian
state over an area between the Ardennes
and the more or less straight line going from
Aachen
to Calais
on the one
hand and the much less populated frontier from Aachen to Arlon
via Malmedy
. However this frontier has not much changed
since the 18th century.
For example, in the communes of Mouscron
-Comines-Warneton
, French seems to be dominant at least since
1761. The frontier splitting the older province of
Brabant and the Hesbaye moved
regularly during the 17th and 18th centuries. Some communes, such
as Hélécine
, switched from Dutch to French and others, such as
Herstappe
, switched from French to Dutch. The Voeren
have a long
Flemish tradition and, in the Land of
Herve, several communes which used to use Germanic dialects
switched to French during the 18th century, as for example,
Berneau and Warsage,
both now part of Dalhem
and
Saint-Jean-Sart, a hamlet of Aubel
.
Prior to the 20th century, this language border did not merely
distinguish speakers of
Belgian
French,
standard Dutch and
standard German, as today, but
between
Romance and a
Germanic dialect continua.
The Germanic
sprachraum was made of different components such as West Flemish, East
Flemish, Brabantic, Limburgish, Ripuarian (transitional dialects
between Limbourgish and Ripuarian are called Low Dietsch), Moselle Franconian dialect of Trier
and
Luxembourgish.
The
Romance sprachraum was made of Picard, Walloon (with four distinct dialects around
the cities of Charleroi
, Namur
, Liège
and Bastogne
), Lorrain and
Champenois. Due to
mass education and the expansion of modern
media such as television, the mid-20th century saw a uniformization
of the different language regions leading to the domination of the
standard languages in their respective domains. In Wallonia, French
became the dominant, priority language (local dialects being used
seldomly). Elsewhere in the Low Countries, the local dialects
survived better, at least in private use.
The historical language border in the Low Countries corresponds to
the frontier between populations whose majorities spoke distinct
languages. However, the ruling upper classes most often spoke
French. As was the case in many European
noble courts, French was historically the
nobility's language. This was also the case most of the rest of the
Low Countries. Several sovereigns of the region, notably including
Maria Theresa of Austria,
succeeded in making French not only the language of the court but
also of their administrations. For instance, while the major part
of the population of Luxembourg speaks Luxembourgish in a private
context, the
administrative
language of Luxembourg is French. As another example, the motto
of the Kingdom of the Netherlands is the French phrase: "Je
maintiendrai", owing to the fact that the language of the
Orange-Nassau reigning family was French until
1890. In Flanders, till the beginning of the 20th century, many
upper class Flemish burghers, such as
Maurice Maeterlinck or
Suzanne Lilar, used French as their first
language.
Another example is the University
of Ghent
which was a French-speaking institution till
1930.
The
language
areas were established 1963. The division into language areas
was included into the
Belgian
Constitution in 1970. The border between the language areas is
the so-called Belgian language or linguistic border. It is based on
the actual language border between the sprachraums but is not
utterly identical. Through
constitutional reforms in the 1970s
and 1980s,
regionalisation of
the
unitary state led to a
three-tiered
federation:
federal, regional, and community governments were
created, a compromise designed to minimize linguistic, cultural,
social and economic tensions. The authority of the Regions and
Communities is limited to some language areas:
This territorial issue, in particular around Brussels, is a source
of tension between the Belgian communities.
Nationalisms and regionalisms
Belgian nationalism
Currents of Belgian nationalism began to emerge in the late 19th
century, seeking to overcome the ethnic and linguistic divides and
create a national culture. Historian
Henri
Pirenne asserted that Belgian identity was not defined on
racial, ethnic or linguistic lines, but in the civilizational
commune of the Belgian people. Supporters of a partition of Belgium
argue that the synchronized attempts to forge a national identity
and culture have been unable to forestall ethno-linguistic
rivalries.
Flemish movement
French was the only official language of Belgium until 1898, even
though
Flanders was and still is
predominantly Dutch-speaking. The government's long refusal to
acknowledge Dutch as an official language led to hostilities
between Flanders and the French-speaking
bourgeoisie who held both political and economic
power. These hostilities gave rise to the
Flemish movement, which began as a literary
and cultural organization, but later became a political movement
that called for legal recognition of Dutch and for social
emancipation of the
Flemish people.
The 1898
Equality
Law made Dutch an official language of Belgium, but it did not
become the sole official language of Flanders until 1921. The
Frenchification of
Brussels was at that time in full expansion. To this day,
French remains the language of the aristocracy.
While a
Wallon industrial and mining
base developed during the 19th century, the largely agrarian
Flanders area trailed in socio-economic development, leading to
widespread demands for regional autonomy and the correction of
imbalances in taxation, social services and representation. The
deterioration of the Walloon industrial base in the late 20th
century occurred parallel to the growth of service and
technological industries in Flanders, aggravating socio-economic
tensions. Modern Fleming demands center over the alleged
over-taxation of Flanders and insufficient autonomy and complaints
over the concentration of social services in Wallonia, causing a
so-called "stream of money" from Flanders to Wallonia. The Flemish
movement has inspired the growth of Flemish nationalist political
parties such as the
Volksunie (People's Union) which
split into different parties including the
Vlaams Blok (succeeded by the
Vlaams Belang), the
New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) and
FlemishProgressives. While the
N-VA seeks greater autonomy and favours the independence of
Flanders, possibly in a confederate state, the Vlaams Belang is
more clearly separatist.
Walloon/Francophone movement
The Walloon movement arose in the 19th century along with the
language disputes; French-speakers sought the preservation of the
French language and culture as the defining creed of the country.
French-speaking politicians (who were sometimes elected in
Flanders) and other influential citizens opposed the Flemish
demands for the recognition of Dutch and wished to maintain a
centralized government to prevent regionalization.
On the other hand,
the Walloon politician Jules
Destrée reacted in 1912 to the process of minorisation of
Wallonia and asked explicitly for a partition of Belgium
along linguistic lines. However, Destrée was using the word
separation in French in the sense of federalization ( ),
and not in the sense of complete partition.
The New York Times explained that
Destrée was afraid of the domination of the Flemings within Belgian
institutions.
The Flemish historian Maarten van Ginderachter wrote that the
Walloons were "excluded from the national power, between 1884 and
1902 there was only one Walloon in the Belgian government"
After the division of Belgium into two clearly separate linguistic
areas, and after the economic decline of Wallonia, two more or less
separate currents have formed. One is a more regional Walloon
movement, demanding to maintain the solidarity between the richer
north and the poorer south, but also increasingly stressing the
separate cultural identity of Wallonia. Another current is merely
Francophone and pro-Belgian, but not regional as such, mainly based
on the French-speakers of Brussels and especially of the
surrounding rim municipalities which are effectively suburbs of
Brussels but situated in Flanders. The two movements have in common
the support of the French language, support of the Belgian state
and opposition to further federal devolution. A minority of
Walloons, however, support increased independence. Flemish
nationalists have claimed that the French-speaking "Belgicists" of
Brussels and its suburbs do not have common interests with the
Walloons, but that these two parties have formed a
quid-pro-quo alliance to oppose the
Dutch-speaking majority . According to this analysis, Walloon
politicians would allegedly give political support to the
French-speaking politicians of Brussels (and its surroundings) in
return for receiving economic support to Wallonia.
Since the 1960s, Belgian political parties and civic organizations
have witnessed bifurcation of membership and organizations between
Walloon and Flanders. Ethnic tensions affect the working of local
governments, which often pass laws prohibiting the use of the
language of the respective minority populations in official
functions . For example, municipal council meetings in Flanders
must take place in Dutch, even if a majority of the council is
French-speaking. On the other hand, Dutch-speaking citizens of the
Flemish municipalities close to Brussels claim their position is
being undermined by the minority rights of French-speaking
settlers. Significant pressures in living conditions have kept the
two main communities separate and confined to their majority
regions; stark ethnic and linguistic segregation has emerged in
Brussels, the capital and largest city of the country. Ethnic
tensions have affected some of the city's surrounding
municipalities, which are situated in Flanders, but have had a
great influx of monolingual French-speakers as a result of
suburbanisation. These Dutch-speaking "
facility municipalities" are obliged
to offer local government services in French, meaning health-care
and public amenities are divided on linguistic lines, and in some
municipalities the original French-speaking minority is believed to
have become a majority.
Brussels
Since the
founding of the Kingdom of Belgium
in 1830, Brussels has transformed from being almost
entirely Dutch-speaking, to being a
multilingual city with French as the
majority language and lingua
franca. This language shift, the Frenchification of Brussels, is
rooted in the 18th century but accelerated after Belgium became
independent and Brussels expanded
past its original boundaries.
The main reason for this was the low social prestige of the Dutch
language in Belgium at the time. From 1880 onwards, more and more
Dutch-speaking people became bilingual and passed only French on to
their children, resulting in a rise of monolingual French-speakers
after 1910. Halfway through the 20th century the number of
monolingual French-speakers carried the day over the (mostly)
bilingual Flemish inhabitants. Only since the 1960s, after the
fixation of the Belgian
language
border and the socio-economic development of Flanders was in
full effect, could Dutch stem the tide of increasing French
use.
The status of Brussels in a partitioned Belgium is uncertain and a
source of considerable debate.
City-state scenario
Some have
suggested that Brussels become a "European [capital] district",
similar to Washington
D.C.
or the Australian Capital Territory
, run by the EU rather than Flanders or
Wallonia. The Union's structure has however no experience at
governing at this level at present. To fulfill this solution in
practice, Brussels would probably need to be an independent
city-state which could join the EU on
equal footing with other
EU
member states.
The possible status of Brussels as a
"city-state" has been suggested by Charles Picqué, Minister-President
of the Brussels-Capital Region, who sees a tax on the EU institutions as a way
of enriching the city. However, the Belgian issue has
generated very little discussion within the EU bodies.
Extension of Brussels
A
controversial issue, complicating the "city-state" scenario, is the
possible extension of the Brussels capital region into the
surrounding municipalities
within the Flemish
Brabant
and Walloon Brabant
. This proposal is not necessarily linked to
a split-up of Belgium.
Some
have, however, suggested that these wealthy areas would make the
city financially viable as an independent state, potentially give
it around 1.5 million
inhabitants, an airport
and forest
within its
boundaries, and make it three or four times larger than the current
capital region. Currently, Brussels is the most important
seat of EU institutions, but the EU has no formal capital. It has
been claimed that a large and independent status may help Brussels
advance its claim as the capital of the EU.
The enlargement of the Brussels capital region is naturally
supported by many French-speakers in the
Flemish municipalities with facilities for French-speakers
surrounding Brussels. As a result of suburbanisation and an influx
of French-speakers and EU officials from Brussels, these
municipalities have in recent decades become increasingly
French-speaking to an extent that French-speakers now form a
majority in some municipalities. These citizens would see their
rights as French-speakers assured by becoming part of the
bilingual, French-dominated capital. In contrast, an extension of
the bilingual region is out of the question for virtually all
Flemish political parties.
Similar to a "Greater Brussels" region, the electoral district of
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde
consists of Brussels and 35 surrounding municipalities in Flanders.
This district is the only remaining entity in Belgium that does not
coincide with provincial borders, and as such it has been deemed
unconstitutional. This has been a conflict issue for years and a
major political problem in the
cabinet formation
crisis of 2007–2008. In this situation, any proposal to merge
the surrounding municipalities into Brussels would probably trigger
a heated debate.
2007 government formation crisis
The
Belgian general
election, 2007 resulted in no political party or coalition
gaining enough seats to form a working majority. The crisis
continued for 196 days, leaving Belgium without a government with a
popular mandate. While prime minister
Guy Verhofstadt's
lame duck ministry remained in power as
caretaker, several leading
politicians were nominated without success by the King to build a
stable governmental coalition. Flemish politician
Yves Leterme had been the prime candidate to
lead the national government, but a political gaffe would prove to
be his undoing. Asked to sing the
Belgian national anthem in French at
National Day celebrations, Leterme instead started to sing
La Marseillaise, France's
anthem. Leterme's error drew condemnation from the different
communities, aggravating distrust and separatist sentiments.
Members of the
Vlaams Belang party
called for a splitting of the country and claim of a national
identity,
culture and
institutions, and claim Belgium is an "unnatural" and "artificial"
state, formed simply as a buffer between France and other European
powers during 19th century conflicts.
Although most Flemish political parties describe their demands as
limited to seeking greater regional autonomy and decentralization
of government, some public opinion polls performed during the
communautary crisis showed that approximately 46% of Flemish people
support secession from Belgium. Other surveys indicated only 12% of
the Flemings want the end of Belgium, whereas 37% want more
responsibilities to be devolved to communities and the regions.
Many French-speakers maintain that there is sufficient regional
autonomy and that Flemish demands are exaggerated and separatist in
nature.
However, the diversity of Brussels and its
significant economic and geopolitical importance in the Western
hemisphere as the headquarters of the European Union and NATO
, make it a
unifying force, making partition unlikely at least for the near
future. In response to heightening domestic and
international speculation regarding the country's future, the
Belgian government launched a public relations campaign through its
embassies worldwide to assuage concerns and fight speculation that
Belgium's division is impending, as indicated by numerous recent
public opinion polls. The King of the Belgians rejected notions and
speculation over a change in the nature of the Belgian state as
part of proposals for the formation of a working government.
On November 18, 2007 an estimated 25,000 people marched in Brussels
to support the unity of Belgium. The march was organized by
Marie-Claire Houart whose
petition calling for unity was signed by 140,000 Belgians.
The
Belgian Chamber
of Representatives on November 22, 2007 rejected the
consideration of a proposed resolution to dissolve Belgium. The
resolution had been introduced on
October
29 by
Bart Laeremans,
Gerolf Annemans,
Filip De Man and
Linda
Vissers (
Vlaams Belang) and called
upon the
federal
government to "take without delay the measures necessary for
the purpose of preparing the break-up of the Belgian State, so the
three communities — Flemings, Walloons and Germans — can go their
own separate ways." Most Flemish parties voted against the
consideration of the proposal. The three members of the
New-Flemish Alliance abstained,
together with three members of
CD&V.
Polls in
Editie NL, a Dutch news program on the commercial
station
RTL 4 and newspaper
De Dag (
The Day) in the Netherlands
showed that between 45% and 77% of Dutch nationals (the results of
the two different polls) would support a merger of their country
with Flanders. A similar poll held in France showed that a majority
of French citizens would support a merger of Wallonia with France,
if Belgium ceased to exist. However, French politicians have ruled
out any interference into the inner Belgian debate.
Position of the political parties
The parties with long lasting participation to the Belgian
governments, that is the Christian Democrats, the Liberals and the
Socialists, as well as the Green parties usually refuse to speak
openly about a possible partitioning of Belgium. This question
seems to be taboo on the Belgian political scene and is only
discussed from time to time by main stream politicians in order to
menace the other community, a bit like the atomic bomb in the
Cold War context. The heart of the problem
is not the partition of Belgium but its federalization also called
regionalization or communitarization. This process of devolution
which began in the 1960s due to the pressure of the
Flemish movement and, to a lesser extent,
of the
Walloon movement is called
in the Belgian context the
state reform. While most
Francophones argue that the state reform is unnecessary, virtually
all Flemish political parties demand a severe reform of the Belgian
state.
Socialist Party Different (SP.A), the Flemish socialist party,
states on its website that it believes an independent Flanders is
not necessary. It does support the devolution of a number of
additional responsibilities, such as the railways or the policy of
employment. Open VLD, the Flemish liberals, wants more
socio-economic and financial autonomy for Flanders, a homogenous
division of responsibilities, more cooperation between the
communities and regions and a strong federal state. Green!, the
Flemish green party, wants another round in the state reform, but
only if it leads to more solidarity, a better functioning of the
institutions and more democracy. It states on its website that it
doesn’t want to reform for the purpose of reforming. Green! wants
Belgium to remain a federal state and considers the cooperation
between different communities within one state to be a challenge
rather than a problem. It also pleads for federal loyalty and
respect for the rulings of the Constitutional Court and wants to
see a more homogenous division of responsibilities.
The Francophone Socialist Party (PS) and Christian Democrats (CDH)
promote the conservation of the current welfare state and are
therefore opposed to any further regionalization of the federal
social policies. The Reformist Movement, the Francophone liberal
party, stresses in its manifesto that the Flemings are intending to
split most of the solidarity mechanisms between the Belgians. They
also state that they minimize the importance of the
Brussels-Capital Region as a constitutional component of the
federal state.
Their approach is to build strong links
between the different components of the French-speaking part of
Belgium, including Brussels and Wallonnia as well as the
municipalities with a French-speaking presence around Brussels and
in Voeren. The
aim of this approach is to create a strong autonomous Francophone
component within the federal state. Écolo, the Francophone Green
party, supports an improvement of the political links between the
communities. They suggest among other things the creation of a
national electoral
arrondissement for the election
of a part of the federal parliament.
In Flanders, several large parties openly call for a partition of
the country. The largest is the far right
Vlaams Belang party (Flemish Interest). Other
openly separatist but more mainstream parties emerged recently:
New-Flemish Alliance,
List Dedecker. In Walonnia and Brussels, only
the
Wallonia-France
Rally party is openly separatist. This party, which has no
elected representative at neither the national and regional level,
promotes the partition of Belgium and a union of Wallonia and
Brussels with France.
Several small parties with no or very few seats at the parliament
campaign explicitly for the unity of the Belgian state. The
conservative
Belgian Union
- promotes a stronger federal government and a return to the
Belgian unitary state which used to exist in the 1960s. The far
leftist Workers Party of
Belgium also support the unity a Belgium for the reason that it
considers the federalization of the country as an attack at the
employers against the welfare state and the union of the labour
unions. The francophone far right Front National is also explicitly
opposed to the partition of the country.
There are several Walloon representatives of the Socialist Party in
the Walloon Parliament who are in favour of the Walloon
Regionalism, also in the Walloon Government as
Eliane Tillieux and
Jean-Claude Marcourt for instance, ie
two socialist ministers on the four of the Walloon Government. The
Walloon wing of the
General Federation of
Belgian Labour are in favour of more powers for the
Regions.
References
- . Since the publication of this book, there are other figures
and the Flemish daily newspaper De Standaard wrote it in 2007 : Guy
Tegenbos “Scheeftrekkingen in ziektekosten bijna weg”
(Imbalance almost vanished). in De Standaard,
April 10, 2007.
- Footnote: Native speakers of Dutch living in Wallonia and of
French in Flanders are relatively small minorities which
furthermore largely balance one another, hence counting all
inhabitants of each monolingual area to the area's language can
cause only insignificant inaccuracies (99% can speak the language).
Dutch: Flanders' 6.079 million inhabitants and about 15% of
Brussels's 1.019 million are 6.23 million or 59.3% of the 10.5
million inhabitants of Belgium (2006); German: 70,400 in the
German-speaking Community (which has language facilities
for its less than 5% French-speakers), and an estimated
20,000–25,000 speakers of German in Wallonia outside the
geographical boundaries of their official Community, or 0.9%;
French: in the latter area as well as mainly in the rest of
Wallonia (3.414 – 0.093 = 3.321 million) and 85% of the Brussels
inhabitants (0.866 million) thus 4.187 million or 39.8%; together
indeed 100%;
- Flemish Academic Eric Corijn (initiator of Charta 91), at a
colloquium regarding Brussels, on December 5, 2001, states that in
Brussels there is 91% of the population speaking French at home,
either alone or with another language, and there is about 20%
speaking Dutch at home, either alone (9%) or with French (11%) –
After pondering, the repartition can be estimated at between 85 and
90% French-speaking, and the remaining are Dutch-speaking,
corresponding to the estimations based on languages chosen in
Brussels by citizens for their official documents (ID, driving
licenses, weddings, birth, death, and so on); all these statistics
on language are also available at Belgian Department of Justice
(for weddings, birth, death), Department of Transport (for Driving
licenses), Department of Interior (for IDs), because there are no
means to know precisely the proportions since Belgium has
abolished 'official' linguistic censuses, thus official documents
on language choices can only be estimations. For a web source on
this topic, see e.g. General online sources: Janssens,
Rudi
- — Strictly, the capital is the municipality Brussels, though the
Brussels-Capital Region might be intended because of its name and
also its other municipalities housing institutions typical for a
capital.
- "Thuis in gescheiden werelden" — De migratoire en
sociale aspecten van verfransing te Brussel in het midden van de
19e eeuw", BTNG-RBHC, XXI, 1990, 3–4, pp. 383–412, Machteld de
Metsenaere, Eerst aanwezend assistent en docent Vrije Universiteit
Brussel
- Footnote: During the government formation periods, the king
nominates the governmental formateurs and informateurs and therefore acts as
a mediator between the different political parties. However it is
not clear whether the head of the Belgian state acts on his own
initiative or only on the advice of senior politicians, of the
caretaker government or of the Council
of the Crown.
- Footnote: 30% of the Dutch-speaking members of the federal
parliament and 17% of the federal parliament.
- Website of the Walloon minister Eliane Tillieux
- Blog of the Walloon minister Jean-Claude
Marcourt with the first words Marcourt, hard-liner
regionalist