“Barst Belgie!”, (Belgium can go to hell!) is the slogan of the ultranationalist, populist and secessionist party “Vlaams Belang” (Flemish Interest). It sums up the very delicate political situation of the country which, besides being the European capital, assumed the rotating EU presidency. The results of the latest national elections, held on 13 June, drew an accurate picture of it, when the opponent-friend of Vlaams Belang, namely the NVA, another Flemish nationalist movement, openly republican, established itself as the first political force in the Flanders. The victory of the right in the North is counterbalanced by the electoral success of the Socialists in the francophone South, in Wallonia. This situation led to a dead end. More than 100 days after the elections, the Belgians are still waiting for a new government. From 2007 to present day the country has had difficulty in finding a political balance to the extent that four different governments have followed one another. The real complication is the atypical gap, compared to the traditional left wing/right wing pair in the rest of the Western World: in the kingdom of Albert II, indeed, the confrontation is between two different territorial blocs, the Flemish and the Walloons. They are two communities with almost nothing to share: they do not watch the same television, they listen to different radio stations, they vote for opposing parties, they speak different languages.
It is an anomaly to set in an historical context. Since 1861, when Belgium was founded, three communities (the Flemish, the francophone and the German-speaking communities) have lived in the same country. However, the traditional supremacy of the French language within the country’s borders led to the birth and growth of a feeling of frustration in the predominant Flanders population, who was excluded from the political and institutional systems for a long time; except for the Flanders’ elite, who speaks French fluently and was directly involved in the formation of the state. To that was added the social barrier, in consideration of the differences in wealth and economic development between the North and the South of the country. The Flemish claims began to take shape going as far as demanding the disintegration of the unitary state and the transformation into a federal state. The Flemish community, which is demographically bigger, started to settle in almost all the key places of the new state structure to the extent that no francophone person has been prime minister from over 36 years. But the linguistic rivalry, and a touch of economic egoism (a substantial part of the Walloon social security is actually funded by the wealthy Flanders), have hampered a real national “reconciliation”. Federalism, achieved in the 90s, did not solve the stability problem nor did it appease the claims. On the contrary, the State reform opened a Pandora’s box which released all the past Flemish reluctances and fostered the wish for a wider power. In other words, in the north of the country, federalism is considered one of the most important advances to reach the final destination: independence.
(Translation: Francesca Cannino)
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