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Belgium in Limbo
09/25/2009 :: Belgium is currently in a state of limbo. The regional elections of June 2009 resulted in a clear victory for parties striving for the independence of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking part of Belgium. These parties obtained over 36% of the vote in Flanders, compared with 24% in the 2004 regional elections.
On the federal level, however, Belgium is still being governed by a cabinet of only 10 Flemings to 12 French-speakers, despite the fact that 60% of the population are Dutch-speaking Flemings and only 40% are French-speakers from Wallonia, the French-speaking southern half of Belgium, or Brussels.
Unconstitutional
The federal government of Prime Minister Herman Van Rompuy has the support of only 41 of the 88 Flemish members of the Belgian Chamber of Representatives, and 53 of the 62 French-speaking members. Mr. Van Rompuy, a pro-Belgian Flemish Christian-Democrat, is pondering how to save Belgium by solving the so-called “BHV problem.” BHV stands for Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. It is the name of an electoral constituency consisting of Belgium’s bilingual capital, Brussels, and the Flemish (Dutch-speaking) district surrounding the towns of Halle and Vilvoorde. In 2003, Belgium’s Constitutional Court ruled that the BHV constituency is unconstitutional and has to be split into two separate constituencies: one bilingual, the other Dutch-speaking.
Six years later, the Walloons in the government are still refusing to comply with the judicial verdict, despite the fact that in November 2007 the federal parliament’s commission for internal affairs approved a bill to split BHV. The French-speaking parties have so far prevented the bill from being tabled in the plenary session of parliament.
Indicative
If, however, BHV is not split by 2011, the general elections of that year will be unconstitutional and, hence, cannot be organized. Mr. Van Rompuy is frantically trying to have Flanders “pay a price” which would persuade Wallonia to accept the ruling of the Constitutional Court and a majority vote in Parliament. It is indicative of Belgium’s status as an artificial country that the matter of whether its Constitution and democratic majority rule should be respected is an issue for debate.
After the 2007 general elections, Belgium was without a government for over 7 months because the Flemish and the Walloon parties could not reach an agreement over BHV. The political crisis has been temporarily solved by a decision not to discuss the matter for the time being. This decision has imposed a state of limbo on Belgium. Soon, however, the matter will have to be brought up again, because more than half of the 4-year federal legislature has already passed.
The Vlaams Belang is opposed to Flanders paying a price in return for Wallonia’s acceptance of the verdicts of the Belgian Constitutional Court. Since democracy and the rule of law seem to be impossible in Belgium, the country must be dissolved and Flanders set free.
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