Disclosure: I am a member of the party Open Vld and live in Flanders. I believe BHV should be split. I am currently working for the government and will lose this job the moment the new government is sworn in.
At this moment Belgian politics are not focused on our presidency of the European Union or on the very real economic challenges the global crisis has given us, the increase in debt, the soaring number of public servants and red tape. The fact that our population is aging and our retirement system will not be able to cope, has been pushed aside.
You see, there is a political crisis in Belgium. Hardly surprising, when isn’t there a political crisis in Belgium? We have fries, beer, chocolate, waffles and political crisises. You might note by my tone that I am somewhat fed up, as are just about all Belgians.
But perhaps you’d like to know a little more about what is going on. For that you will first need to understand the very complex political system in Belgium. If you already know, you may skip ahead to the title “current developments”.
The Belgian political system (simplified)
Officially, we are a federal state, but we have given a very Belgian interpretation to the word “federal”. In the north you have Flanders. This is the region that borders the North Sea and has the ports of Antwerp, Zeebrugge and several others. People here speak Dutch and it is a generally prosperous region. In the south you have Wallonia where people speak French, except in a small region where people speak German. The capital, Brussels, is officially bilingual, although seldom so in practice. Brussels is not part of the region of Flanders or Wallonia. It is its own separate region.
In Flanders, as in Wallonia, there are two regional governments. One is geographical, based on region. The other one is based on culture and language. In Flanders we have merged these two, not so in Wallonia. The reason for there being two governments is because of the peculiar arrangement that has been made for Brussels. Brussels is situated in, but is not part of, Flanders. There is a government in Brussels with the same power as the Flemish and Walloon regional governments. But there is no second government in Brussels with power over cultural matters. People living in Brussels are considered to be either part of the French-speaking (Walloon) culture and community, or the Flemish one. So the Flemish and Walloon governments are responsible, each for their own community in Brussels but only on matters of culture.
Because Belgium is a federal state, the government necessarily is a coalition between parties from both states. There are no national parties to speak of, all parties are either Flemish or Walloon. Voters can only vote for people who live in their own state, divided into provinces. As a Flemish person you can not vote for someone who lives in Wallonia, and you can’t vote for someone living in Flanders if you live in Wallonia. The government will always be a coalition of several Flemish and several Walloon parties.
There is one exception to this. Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde is not a provincial constituency but consists of the capital, Brussels and a region in Flanders. Because of this, it is possible for people living in this constituency to vote for politicians who do not live in Flanders. Several French-speakers who migrated to Flanders, do this and this favors the French-speaking politicians who are electable in Brussels. It also means that Flemish voters who do not live in Brussels, can vote for members of the Brussels parliament.
The constitutional court has ruled that this is unconstitutional. But the French-speaking parties do not want to split BHV. They argue that we might as well solve the problem by changing the constitution. The Flemish politicians are opposed to this and demand that BHV is split.
Current developments
This crisis was almost solved in 2005 by then prime minister Guy Verhofstadt and in 2007 promises were made by current prime minister Yves Leterme. Earlier this year, former prime minister Jean-Luc Dehaene failed in an attempt to finally solve the problem, prompting an ultimatum from a government party, Open Vld, who subsequently withdrew their support for the government and forced new elections.
The results of these elections were surprising. In the north the party N-VA won a landslide victory. They believe Belgium should be split and Flanders should become its own state. They agreed to enter negotiations, believing that more powers for Flanders and a split of BHV were a step in the right direction. In the south, the great winner was the PS, a socialist party who is opposed to giving the states more power. The two parties agreed to negotiate and have been doing this, together with possible coalition partners, for more than 75 days.
They planned for a broad reform that would include BHV but would also address some other issues such as more power and money for the states. The real bonus that would make the French-speaking parties eager to make the negotiation work, was the promise that the leader of the PS, Elio Di Rupo, would become prime minister. It would be the first Walloon prime minister in more than 50 years.
These negotiations have just failed. It is likely that an external negotiator will be brought in and will try to reconcile the parties. Currently, none of them are willing to bulge. This means that there is no new government and that the old government remains in place with limited power. Update: the king has refused to accept the resignation of Di Rupo, the leader of the PS, and has asked him to continue. This implicitly means that the king is sending a signal to all parties involved, although it is not certain this will have any impact.
I normally don’t write about Belgian politics but have written this article to help my foreign readers understand this… special situation.
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I would like to point your attention to a very insightful article in the German weekly newspaper Der Spiegel. It theorizes that the massive German industrial growth in the 19th century that made the country an economic giant in the early 20th century might be caused by the countries lack of copyright. 
