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What Is the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde Question?
11/01/2007 :: The immediate cause of the crisis between Flanders and Wallonia is a 2003 ruling of Belgium’s Constitutional Court concerning the bilingual electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde (BHV). This constituency is made up of bilingual Brussels on the one hand, and Dutch-speaking Halle-Vilvoorde (HV) on the other hand. Halle and Vilvoorde are Dutch-speaking towns which administratively belong to the province of Flemish Brabant.
Apart from Brussels, a bilingual enclave surrounded by Flanders, Belgium consists of unilingual regions: French-speaking politicians can only stand for election in Wallonia, while Dutch-speaking politicians can only stand for election in Flanders. The BHV-constituency violates the constitution because it allows French-speaking politicians to stand for election in parts of Flanders, while Flemish politicians are not allowed to stand for election in Wallonia.
A severe beating
In its 2003 ruling the Belgian Constitutional Court exhorted the government to rectify the situation by July 2007 at the latest, either by allowing Flemings to stand for election in Wallonia, or by no longer allowing Walloons to stand in Flanders, i.e. by dividing the BHV constituency into a bilingual Brussels constituency and a Flemish HV constituency.
Belgium’s Liberal-Socialist government coalition led by Prime Minister Guy Verhofstadt was unable to set things straight. The Walloon ministers vetoed any change in the existing situation.
Following last June’s elections, in which the Flemish electorate gave Verhofstadt’s Liberals and his Socialist partners a severe beating, the Flemish parties refuse to join a coalition that does not agree to split BHV. In Wallonia, however, where the Liberals won the elections, all parties refuse to join a coalition that divides BHV without the Flemings paying a heavy price for it.
This has led to the current situation where it is impossible to form a government. King Albert II cannot even call the Belgians to the ballot box again because new elections are unconstitutional as long as BHV has not been split.
Article in issue nº 20
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