Tema destacado del Miércoles, 5. Septiembre 2007

Lamentablemente, todavía no se encuentra disponible la traducción en española de este texto, por lo tanto, solamente podemos poner a su disposición la versión inglesa.

Is the division of Belgium inevitable?

Eighty-seven days after the legislative elections last June 10th, Belgium still has no government. Yves Leterme, leader of the Flemish Christian-democrat party and winner of the elections, has failed to form a coalition government. French-speaking Belgians are unwilling to accept his institutional reforms that would lead to greater regional autonomy. This deadlock could result in the scission of the Belgian federal state.

Les Echos - Francia

The daily notes "a lack of solidarity of the Flemish 'rich' with the French-speaking Belgian 'poor'. ... The Belgian nation does not exist. Everywhere in Europe's nations, rich and poor regions live together in an unequal, but eventually accepted exchange. ... Hence Italy had to overcome the Northern League's agitation when it was reluctant to pay for the south; rich Catalonia has obtained internal autonomy which it is not far from considering independence. And if the West-Germans from the Lander region have accepted for eighteen years to finance the people in the East, it is for reasons that do not exist in Belgium: an ethnic and linguistic unity, the reconstitution of a big, momentarily amputated country, a large-scale collective project. Instead of this, the Flemish have become obsessed with the arrogance of the French-speakers and the French -speakers obsessed with the selfishness of the Flemish, which does not make a united Belgium." (05/09/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Bélgica, » Europa

El País - España

"The federal system is having difficulty containing the secessionist whims essentially expressed by the Flemish", notes the Spanish daily. "The Flemish are the most prosperous in a country that remains united thanks to the Catholic religion, the monarchy and the fact that Brussels houses the European institutions. Fewer and fewer Flemish people speak French while fewer and fewer French-speaking Belgians speak Flemish. ... [The difficulty forming a government] reflects how difficult it is to maintain a feeling of unity in Belgium. The Flemish, under heavy pressure from the independent movement and far-right, want new reforms in the federal system for more self-governance and for more of a confederation, while the French-speakers are resisting this as they lose out on an economic level, apart from in Brussels, which is a distinct federal entity." (04/09/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Bélgica

De Morgen - Bélgica

"Dutch-speakers and French-speakers don't talk together enough for Belgium to be called a healthy democracy", explains Professor Philippe Van Parijs in an interview published in the Flemish daily. "This was predictable, and not only over these past three months [of unresolved negotiations]. In despotic countries, different linguistic groups can stay together indefinitely, seeing as the nation is given no say. But as soon as it is a question of democratic institutions, public opinion develops in different languages. This is why political boundaries and linguistic boundaries will coincide for a long time all over the world, as the British philosopher John Stuart Mill explained as early as in 1861. What we are witnessing today is not a specifically Belgian problem. Look at the Soviet Union, Yugoslavia and Czechoslovakia." (05/09/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Bélgica
Todos los textos disponible de » Philippe Van Parijs

La Libre Belgique - Bélgica

"It appears that the final hour of the Belgian State has drawn a little closer", writes Jean-Luc de Meulemeester, professor at the Université Libre de Belgique. "French-speaking Belgians are dreading this moment, especially as, unlike the Flemish, they have no substitute homeland. While the Flemish nation is building itself, the French-speaking nation is still seeking an identity. But it may be that an eventual division of the country could serve a purpose in the adaptation of the Belgian social-economic model to new capitalism (More Anglo-Saxon, less German). Without actually realising it, Belgians are living in one of the last 'Welfare states'. The degree of inequality is relatively small in Belgium and fiscal pressure is high. For some, this would be unbearable in a Europe that has chosen to open up to international competition, facing the rise of China and India." (05/09/2007)

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Más de la revista de prensa sobre el tema » Política interior, » Bélgica
Todos los textos disponible de » Jean-Luc De Meulemeester

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