BRUSSELS, Belgium - To the uninitiated,
the existential crisis splitting Belgium down the middle these days might
seem like a (very) civilized war as told by Dr. Seuss, with the
French-speaking Walloons on one side and the Dutch-speaking Flemings on the
other.
To continue the literary analogy, consider the library at Belgium's Leuven
University. Make that two libraries.
German armies had burned down Leuven's library in the two world wars, and it
was rebuilt after each. But then in 1970, the last time the Flemings and the
Walloons got seriously restive, the million-volume collection was carved
into two: Odd-numbered books remained on the original campus in the
Dutch-speaking part of the country, while even-numbered books went to a
Francophone school built 17 miles to the south.
Thirty-seven years later, Belgium's national identity is still so elusive,
so fragile and so fractured that the little country wedged between the
Netherlands and France might be on the verge of breaking apart.
The more prosperous Dutch-speakers in Flanders in the north want to shake
off their relatively poor French-speaking neighbors of Wallonia in the
south. After 177 years, Belgium, with its 10.5 million people, would
disappear into two nations.
After decades of snubs and bitter grudges, the two halves of Belgium have
separate languages, political parties, schools and media. Some claim that
even the birds of Flanders and Wallonia sing in different languages.
These divisions have thrown the country into a political limbo that is 5
months old and counting. Since June 10 national elections, warring factions
from each region have been unable to form a coalition government, with the
main hurdle being Flemish demands for increased autonomy.
In the meantime, outsiders seem to find amusement in the predicament of the
little country famous for chocolate, French fries and producing 500 kinds of
beers. An Australian journalist insisted the country had to stay together
because who would want "Flemish chocolates " or to be anything "Walloon,"
the "Oompa Loompa of national adjectives"?
If Belgium has any image internationally, it is as the home of the 27-member
European Union, founded 50 years ago to transcend just this kind of
Balkanization that plunged Europe into two world wars in the last century.
So no one has missed the irony that over the half-century the EU came
together, the country that hosts its capital has spiraled further apart.
Polls show that fewer than half the Flemings are ready to saw apart the
country, but a majority in both regions envisions that sometime in the next
decade the kingdom known as Belgium will no longer exist.
As crises of these sorts go, this one has been relatively civil. No one has
pulled a gun or exploded a bomb or threatened to behead the king, who went
off on holiday this summer as the crisis ground on. Rather, grievances are
aired on television, in competing editorials and in debates on the floor of
Belgium's six governing parliaments. And there are such skirmishes almost
daily.
What is a Belgian?
At the core of the controversy is the struggle to answer:
What is a Belgian?
"I am a Fleming and a European citizen, and I have always felt like that,"
said Geert Bourgeois , a minister in the Flanders government who founded the
New-Flemish Alliance, a small but influential secessionist party.Press Bourgeois about his national identity, and he goes right past the idea of Belgium to describe the growing frustration of growth-minded Flanders in attempting to deal with health care, justice, even traffic congestion. The Flemings want to invest in prisons; the Walloons don't. According to many, Flemings want tougher standards for unemployment benefits; Walloons, who rely heavily on government subsidies, don't.
"Today, in the Flemish-Walloon marriage," Bourgeois insisted, "it is like a husband that says to his spouse, 'Honey, I love you and I want us to stay together forever, but forget about your wishes and needs.' "
Marriage can be saved
But Walloons argue that this marriage can be saved, it must, and they resent
being portrayed by Flemish politicians as grim incompetents. Yet even in
Wallonia, politicians concede it may be time to explore the idea of making
it on their own.It would be too easy to conclude that either region's grievances are rooted in practical matters such as differing unemployment rates (Wallonia is at 14 percent and Flanders at 5 percent) and inheritance taxes (it's cheaper to die in Flanders).
Resentments date to the founding of Belgium in 1830, when French was fatefully imposed as the official language on a Flemish majority. By the first half of the 20th century, the French-speaking elite dominated by denying Flemings many basic rights such as an education in their own language. During World War I, Flemish soldiers were sent into battle by French-speaking officers, and many died because they didn't understand their orders.
Bourgeois looks upon those deaths as a turning point when "in the trenches, common Flemings united with Flemish intellectuals and became aware of their discrimination and the injustice of the whole situation."
Belgian identity lost further ground in the 1960s when the steel- and coal-based industries of Wallonia, which had long fueled the national economy and Francophone power, petered out. The wealthy Walloons of the south lost everything, and instead of forcing painful economic reform, they relied on the growing economic prowess of Flanders, now a center of high-tech and international business.
With Flemish activists agitating for increased parity, a formal linguistic border was established through constitutional reform in 1970, and Belgium was formally divided three ways among Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels. From then on, everything that had been shared was divvied up.