Belgium: less than the sum of its parts?

Inroads: A Journal of Opinion, Summer-Fall, 2008 by Johanne Poirier

Notes

(1) In the meantime, the previous coalition and prime minister remained in place to deal with "current affairs." Hence, the country was not truly without a government, but without one which could, well, govern, rather than simply attend to bare essentials.

(2) Officially, Belgium had a "mandate" from the League of Nations and then from the United Nations to govern Burundi (and Rwanda). For our purposes, the colonial analogy will do.

(3) The coalition government which finally emerged nine months after the June 2007 election is composed of the Flemish Liberals (VLD), the French-speaking Liberals (MR), the Flemish Christian Democrats (CD&V), the French-speaking "Humanists" (successors to the Christian Democrats, CDH) and the French-speaking Socialists (PS). The Flemish Socialists refused to join the coalition. A wide coalition was required to allow for a new round of constitutional decentralization (which requires a two-thirds majority in Parliament). Every Flemish party insisted on the necessity of such reforms.

(4) Recent statistics show that half the children born in Brussels have non-Belgian mothers.

(5) It is estimated that around 80 to 90 per cent of Bruxellois use French as the common language of communication. As a result of a complex political compromise dating from the early 1960s, the census must not, by law, contain questions concerning the use of language. It is ironic, of course, that a state architecture built almost entirely on linguistic divisions ignores the sociodemographics of language.

(6) Unofficially, that is. Legally, it is only the "seat" of its main institutions.

(7) The irony may be that were it to become in dependent, Flanders, as one the richest regions of Europe, would likely have to increase its EU contributions to eastern Europe. What Wallonia would no longer get through intra-Belgium transfers, Romania might receive. Whether this would be more palatable to the Flemish, given the lack of historical resentment toward the Romanians, is an open question.

(8) "Flemish interest." This may explain why, in the wake of the last federal election, no party supported a motion introduced by the Vlams Belang calling for a referendum on Flemish independence.

(9) That being said, a proposal for the creation of a limited "national" riding is gaining official support. It would allow for 15 of the 150 members of the Lower House to be elected by voters across the country (they would thus require support from both Flemings and French speakers). While the 10 per cent mark is low, it is believed (or hoped!) that the political and moral weight of candidates for this riding would serve as a bridge-building measure.

Johanne Poirier is a professor in the Faculty of Law at the Universite Libre de Bruxelles.