Countries of the World/COUNTRYS.BIN/dp/0034/00347.txt

Text File | 1991-06-24 | 19KB | 304 lines

$Unique_ID{COW00347}
$Pretitle{370}
$Title{Belgium
Chapter 1F.   Political Parties and Legal Reform}
$Subtitle{}
$Author{Rita Moore-Robinson}
$Affiliation{HQ, Department of the Army}
$Subject{parties
government
brussels
language
social
belgium
flemish
issue
party
election}
$Date{1984}
$Log{}
Country:     Belgium
Book:        Belgium, A Country Study
Author:      Rita Moore-Robinson
Affiliation: HQ, Department of the Army
Date:        1984

Chapter 1F.   Political Parties and Legal Reform

     The Social Christian-Liberal government, headed by Gaston Eyskens,
proclaimed in September 1960 the loi unique (single law): a budget package of
strict austerity measures, including increased taxation and decreased public
expenditures (especially in social security and in subsidies to inefficient
coal mines) but also including a five-year plan for industrial expansion. The
Socialist Trade Union, predominantly Walloon, ordered a general strike to
protest the austerity plan, which it called the loi inique (evil law), and the
unfair burden placed on a working class already pressed by falling wages, mine
closures, and rising unemployment. In December 1960 and January 1961 the
strike was almost total in Wallonia and Brussels and was accompanied by riots.
The Walloon workers, led by Andre Renard, the Socialist Trade Union leader,
appealed to Flemish unionists to support the strikes, but the Catholic unions,
controlling well over one-half the unionized workers in Flanders, refused.
Many Walloons believed that their Flemish compatriots had betrayed them,
transforming the issue from a purely economic question to a matter of rival
nationalisms.

     Renard and about 440 other members of the Socialist Trade Union
established the Popular Walloon Movement (MPW) in April 1961, demanding a
federal division of Belgium to allow Wallonia to look after its own future
because it could not trust a system in which "clerical, conservative Flanders
can impose its will on socialist, progressive Wallonia." Renard's death in
1962 cut short the MPW's development. The next effort to organize was in 1964,
when the Front for the Unity and Liberty of Wallonia merged the MPW with a
number of smaller groups. In the same year, the Democratic Front of
Francophones (FDF) was organized by the French-speaking residents of Brussels.
Finally, the Walloon Rally (RW) was formed out of two smaller parties in 1968.
These parties almost universally supported the idea of a federal division of
the Belgian state that would give significant powers to Walloon and Brussels
regional governments.

     Following the strikes, which finally ended when the Socialist Trade Union
agreed reluctantly to a compromise, the Social Christian-Liberal government
fell and was replaced by a Social Christian-Socialist government. On May 2,
1961, the new coalition promised to end the quarrels between the communities
by establishing a language frontier, apportioning the seats in parliament
according to population, and addressing the vexing question of bilingual
Brussels. In 1962 the linguistic border was legally established, not without
controversy, and in the same year a new language law was passed over the
protests of Walloon members of parliament. It required that all education in
Dutch-speaking areas be conducted in that language and that in Brussels, now
officially declared a bilingual city, the language of instruction for a child
was to be determined by the language of his or her father.

     Complementary laws in 1963 reinforced the educational policies and tried
to deal with disputes surrounding the demarcation line set the previous year,
especially regarding the Fourons (Voeren) commune, whose residents protested
their inclusion in the Flemish community. Brussels, located in Flemish
territory but inhabited by a majority of French speakers, was divided into
three arrondissements: one bilingual, including the center of the city; one
Flemish, on the northern border of the city; and one where the choice of
language was "optional" and having a special provision for bilingualism in the
schools. The boundaries of the two language communities were essentially
fixed, despite continuing controversies over the edges. From this point,
attention was focused on the question of Brussels. Flemings in all parties
hardened their position on limiting the spread of the Brussels suburbs into
Flemish territory, and the French speakers created the FDF in 1964 to defend
their interests.

     In the parliamentary elections of 1965 the nationalist parties for the
first time made substantial electoral gains. In 1961 the Socialists and Social
Christians, the government coalition, together accounted for 78 percent of the
votes cast, but in 1965 their tally amounted to only 63 percent, a drop of 15
percent shared roughly evenly by the two parties. The reconstituted Liberal
Party, which had emphasized the importance of the language issue, doubled its
seats in parliament, garnering almost 22 percent of the vote, and the
nationalist parties accounted for about 10 percent of the national vote. The
election was an unmitigated disaster for the government parties and
represented a distinct radicalization of the electorate on the language issue.
The opposition parties, despite their gains, chose to remain in opposition;
the new government was again a Social Christian-Socialist coalition, this time
under Pierre Harmel. Taking a cue from the election, the new government
announced a program for limited devolution of administrative responsibilities,
especially in cultural affairs, to communal governments.

     Three years later the linguistic crisis came to a head. For the first
time in Belgian history a government fell over a language issue. The immediate
issue was the fate of the French section of the Catholic University of Louvain
(KUL/UCL). It had remained the only major exception to the unilingual policies
established in 1963. The Flemish faculties and Flemish nationalist demanded
that the French division be transferred (or "expelled") to Wallonia. The
Catholic bishop's reluctant decision to allow separate Dutch-speaking and
French-speaking faculties to emerge failed to stem the mounting unrest. In
mid-January 1968 students from the two sections rioted for four days with
increasing violence. The Social Christian-Liberal government of Paul Vanden
Boeynants was forced to resign on February 7 over its failure to resolve the
issue.

     A general election was called in March, but it was only after a
four-month governmental crisis, the longest in Belgian history, that a Social
Christian-Socialist coalition could be formed, in June 1968, under the
leadership of Eyskens. The coalition was based on an agreement that henceforth
cabinet ministries would be evenly divided between the two language groups
(formalized by a constitutional amendment of 1971), that the existing
situation of two ministers of education and two ministers of culture (one
Fleming, one Walloon) would continue, that there would be two ministers for
relations between the French- and Dutch-speaking communities, and that in
future there would be equal numbers of Flemish and Walloon appointments to all
top government positions (armed forces, diplomatic corps, etc.) Furthermore,
it was agreed that economic policymaking functions would devolve to three
regional economic councils to be created for Flanders, Wallonia, and Brabant.

     The election helped to precipitate a permanent split in the Social
Christian Party between the Flemish part, the CVP, and the Walloon part, the
PSC. The CVP campaigned on the vague platform that the unitary structure of
the state had to be reformed to reflect the existence of two separate
communities, preferably by giving more authority to the regions. The PSC
stressed the importance of maintaining the existing structure of the state
while recognizing the communities. The real dividing line was over Brussels
and Louvain; the CVP demanded strict enforcement of existing laws, and the
PSC argued on behalf of personal freedom