Bye Bye Belgium?

While the eyes of much of Europe’s media has been focussed on Scotland and the SNP’s election victory followed by the launch of the ‘National Conversation’ on an Independence Referendum it seems that Flanders place in the Belgian federation may be weakening.

In June of this year the election for the Belgian federal parliament was held and some 2 months later a government has still not been formed. The last Belgian government had no fewer than 6 parties in it.

The impasse has been caused by the a breakdown in negotiations between parties from Flemish speaking Flanders (North of Belgium) and French speaking Wallonia (South of Belgium).

The largest ‘party-bloc’ at the election was Christian Democrats and Flemish (CDV) / New Flemish Alliance (NVA). Their leader, Yves Leterme, has been trying to hold negotiations with other parties to form a new government. This bloc campaigned strongly on greater devolution for Flanders. The NVA hold firm Flanders nationalists sentiments and have a strong republican streak to their view of the King Albert of the Beglians.

The second largest party-bloc was the Reformist Movement (MR) who are French speaking Wallonians who favour Belgian union and are very much against more autonomy for Flanders. The King of the Belgians originally asked the leader of MR, Didier Reynders, to start coalition talks after the election – a role called the “informateur”

To be the informateur is not to try and form a government with you as its head. The role instead is to compile a report of the wishes of the different parties for the King as a basis of a future coalition negotiation. Once Ryenders completed this task Leterme of the CDV became the “formateur”. The formateur’s role is to take this report and to put a government together and suggest the appointment of the Prime Minister – not necessarily a role he would take automatically as the lead former of the government.

For almost 2 months Leterme has being trying to put a coalition together but to no avail due to the completed opposing views of the Flanders parties and Wallonian parties over further devolution – and neither side are budging.

Leterme has a particularly large hurdle to clear to get the desire state reforms that his party and other Flemish nationalists paties campaigned for as such constitutional reforms require a 2/3rds majority of the Belgian parliament and the Wallonians are steadfastly refusing.

The niggle at the negotiating table is perhaps unsurprising as Leterme has said recently that French-speaking Wallonians were too stupid to learn Flemish – which as you can imagine wasn`t a universally popular sentiment in French-speaking Wallonia. Leterme was also asked by a journalists to sing the Belgian national anthem in French – he broke into a rendition of the French national anthem ‘La Marseillaise’. He has recently confessed to having made some blunders in the past few weeks.

Ryenders of MR’s motives have been questioned for delaying or blocking further devolution. Some quarters are suggesting that he is against further devolution as the Wallonian regional government is currently dominated by the Socialist party – his own party’s main rival in the region. This accusation was compounded when Ryenders suggested he may be open to further devolution after the regional election in 2009 where his party is expected to fair better than at the last regional elections.

The problems in forming the federal government do not appear to be resolving themselves too quickly as today King Albert has stepped in and has suspended talks. Some commentators in Belgium have now begun to discuss the possibility that Flanders and Wallonia will have to go their separate ways. King Albert last intervened in talks in 1978 to get things back on track. Whether he can do the same now remains to be seen. Perhaps the split speculated over in the fake broadcast from the Wallonian broadcasters may yet come to pass.

What is clear is that the Flemish and the Wallonians clearly have very different, and indeed opposing, views on what the future direction of their respective nations and federal Belgium should be.