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Belgium on the verge of break-up?

Paris: Is Belgium on the verge of a break-up? Nearly 35,000 persons demonstrated in Brussels recently to protest against such a possibility which could fast become a reality if the impasse that has left the country without a government since elections were held last June continues much further.

Bearing placards and banners calling for continued Belgian unity — often wearing the red, back and yellow colours of the nation — the they opposed the prospect of Belgium splitting into French and Flemish entities. At the end of the march and in very cold weather, they attend a live concert and feast on fries and beer, touted by many as the national dish.

The march was organised by Marie-Claire Houard, a Liege resident whose Belgian unity petition has gathered 1,40,000 signatures in three months. “I do not think Belgium will break up because you see this rally is sending out a signal, people do not want Belgium to break up.”

But fears of a divorce between the Flemish-speaking north and the French speaking south are growing with each passing day. For the past five months, since the June 2007 parliamentary elections, Belgium has been without a government, its French and Flemish parties failing to reach a power-sharing agreement. Flanders, more wealthy than French-speaking Wallonia and impatient to receive more federal powers, is in a natural majority, accounting for some 60 per cent of Belgium’s 10.5 million population. There appears to be no hope for a way out as both linguistic communities appear as entrenched as ever in their positions.

The major stumbling block to forming a government is that the Flemish and French-speaking parties cannot agree on how much autonomy the Flemish community should enjoy.

Recent polls show indicate Flemish favour a complete split, and one published last week by France’s Le Journal du Dimanche found strong support for Wallonia joining France if Belgium were to break up. The quarrel is also an economic one. Once wealthy Wallonia has now become the poorer of the two communities and the Flemish often refer to their French speaking countrymen as “lazy socialists living on Flemish handouts”.

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