Ah, Belgium. Europe’s capital, Europe’s first president, a forthcoming EU presidency. In short, a rising nation. And yet. While some belgian politicians indulge in navel-gazing, the world cannot help but to look at this small country’s internal problems with raised eyebrows.

It is difficult to take Belgium seriously with former Prime Minister Yves Leterme resigning not once, but three times. The man could already have foreseen troubles were ahead, back when his party, the Flemish Christian-Democrats (CD&V), won the federal election in cartel with the Flemish nationalists of the New Flemish Alliance (N-VA). As Minister-President of the Flemish region, Leterme always portrayed himself as ‘defender’ of the Flemish. When he pretended to do the same at federal level as Prime Minister, he was faced with the tenacious Walloons, notorious defenders of Belgium. They saw no good in Leterme from the start, nor in his plans to reform the State and to move more federal competences to the regions.

Moreover, standing on tables at the elections while waving the Flemish flag with cartel partner N-VA, forgetting the national anthem and insulting the Walloons for being too lazy or stupid to learn Dutch did not help him either to win the hearts of the Walloons.

As the Walloons saw in the Flemish demands a threat to Belgium’s stability, it took Belgium 100 days to reach a coalition agreement and therefore form a government.

Sadly, this new-formed government barely lasted five months, when, in July 2008 Leterme presented his resignation to King Albert II, who turned it down. Half a year later, Leterme resigned again after anger over the rescue of Fortis Bank. January 2009. Herman Van Rompuy becomes PM and brings some stability back, only to leave it behind in November 2009 when he accepted the position of President of the European Council. So re-enters Leterme.

April 22 2010. Yves Leterme presents his resignation to King Albert II after the Flemish liberals (Open VLD) quit the Cabinet. Their motivation: the inability of Flemish and Walloon politicians to agree on a solution on the bilingual voting district Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.

But what is BHV all about? In Belgium, voting districts are organised provincially since 2002, resulting in larger voting districts compared to the previous system. Only in Flemish-Brabant no agreement could be reached on the rearrangement in a voting district Brussels and Flemish Brabant, so the old system was maintained there: BHV (Brussels and Western Flemish Brabant) on one hand and Leuven (Eastern Flemish Brabant) on the other. This decision did not reckon with the Constitutional Court, who ruled this decision as unconstitutional. It is precisely in how this problem should be resolved in which the discrepancies between Flanders and Wallonia lie, as each of them stubbornly holds on to their own completely opposed claims.

This political crisis could hardly occur at a worse time, as Belgium is to hold the EU’s rotating presidency starting July 1st. The fall of the Belgian government results in early elections on June 13th, but there is no way to predict if Belgium will start its presidency with or without a federal government.

Because of all this, many people, deeply dissapointed in politics, call to stay at home on June 13, day of the elections, although in Belgium voting is compulsory. Opinion polls suggest that the separatist N-VA will become Flanders’ biggest party, which, obviously, will not help to calm down the Walloons, who mainly vote for the pro-Belgium Socialists. Therefore, it will not be easy, once more, to form a new government... |