According to a survey carried out in 2007 by the newspaper “Het Laatste Nieuws”, 62,8% of Flemish think that Belgium will not last long, and 25,1% believe that the country’s implosion will happen within few years. The country has been living ten years of political instability seemingly impossible to put an end to. The economic gap between the two regions is now reversed to the South’s disadvantage. The situation is worsened by the problems related to the economic reconversion after the closedown of the mines in Wallonia and by the confusion created by the difficult redistribution of the institutional competences due to a complex State reform (“double layered federalism”). The Flemish call for new and more radical institutional reforms is out of favour with Walloons. The incomprehension between the leaderships of the two communities seems to reach its peak. Racism episodes towards francophone people living in the bilingual or predominantly Flemish territories have increased. The crisis has never been so grave. Now it is beyond dispute that a weakening of the national reference followed up the fragmentation of Belgium and of its old unitary institutions, actually federative.
The crisis began so evident that, a few weeks ago, for the first time, the francophone leader Elio Di Rupo acknowledged the real possibility of the end of these two communities living together. The political and intellectual Walloon elite is supposing all the possible scenarios and thinking about the so-called “B plan” to use at last extremity: the foundation of a new Brussels-Wallonia federation. This hypothesis is not free from substantial difficulties given that, in case of disintegration of the country, the Flemish would give up the capital city of their region and of Belgium, which is situated in their territory. Brussels is also the wealthiest and the most productive city in the country, and that is one reason more for not giving up, even though 90% of francophone people live in the city. On 13 December 2006 the Belgians went through a “Martian landing” as well, the brilliant radio farce by Orson Welles who spread panic among the American listeners in 1938; the Brussels national television station RTBF broadcast a docu-fiction where it was announced that the Flemish Parliament had approved the secession of Flanders from Belgium. The “BBB” (Bye Bye Belgium) operation, whose media impact had been prepared in a year’s work at perfection, was a real national shock, especially in Wallonia and in the bilingual territories. The prince, heir to the throne, was forced to go back home from a mission abroad, while the army retired to the barracks, as prescribed by the Constitution in case of secession. For three endless minutes many people believed that this original mise-en-scène was real. It succeeded in projecting into the daily reality a hypothesis which was, until lately, a taboo. Today, the Establishment, intellectuals and common people became aware of a reality which is often underestimated. A question arises from this new consciousness: what if that would really happen?
(Translation: Francesca Cannino)
See Also:
1) The Belgian enigma
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