Behind the Belgian crisis

(Reportage realized by Arte. English transcription by Emiliano Biaggio) - What about the deepest causes of the crisis Belgium is experiencing? Is it history? Is it the identity? Is it the rivalry between Walloons and Flemings? Let's have a look to the map to try to understand a little bit more about Belgium. The kingdom has a surface of 30.500 square kilometres, and 10,5 million people live there. Belgium capital city, Brussels, symbolizes the integration of Europe but at the same time is the capital city of a country which risks to split up. How is it possible? There is no doubt the first explanation is historic reasons. Belgium didn't exist as an independent country until the XIX century: the territory we know nowadays has been under the influence of other European powers (Spain, Austria, France, Germany). At the end of XVIII century (1795) Belgium as we know today was part of France, and was divided in nine districts. Then it became part of Napoleon's empire. In 1815 Prussia, Austria and the United Kingdom decided to re-design the chart of Europe, and the idea was of creating a buffer state in order to can address any French expansion. This buffer state, the kingdom of the Netherlands, put together two different peoples: Protestants in the north, Catholics in the south. This buffer state lasted only fifteen year: in fact Catholics from the two linguistic communities went together and declared the independence in 1830. But in this new country Flemish community felt ruled by Walloons for two reasons: language and economy. French became the official language of the kingdom in reaction of former allied of the Netherlands and because French was the language spoken by the economic bourgeoisie. Only in 1898 Dutch was declared official language of Belgium. Secondly, Wallonia at the time was one of the most important industrial region of Europe because the high concentration of coal mines, and iron and steel plants. Flanders were, on the contrary, nothing but an agricultural district. Only in the 60's the situation started to change: Wallonia economic tissue was on crisis while the Flanders started to experience industrialization thanks to automotive sector and chemical industry development. The city of Antwerpen, with the third most important commercial harbour in Europe, helped the Flanders to gain economic power. As a result, Flanders today account for 80% of Belgian export.

In such a situation the unemployment rate fell in Flanders (5,8%) and rose in Wallonia (11,8%), and this has become another reason of rivalry. People living in Flanders consider the region as the economic leading part of the country. In the 70's Belgium started a political process to turn the country into a federation, and in 1993 finally the kingdom had the new organization: Flanders (6 million people), Wallonia (3,5 million people), Region of Brussels (majority French speaking people). But the federal organization of the country, considered as the solution to the problem of the kingdom, didn't stop divisions. Powers and competences are another part of the Belgian problem. Today most of competences have been transferred to the Regions, and the central State has competence in justice, finance, budgettary plan, security, defense, foreign affairs, and above all employment and social secuty. Flanders would employment and social security be matters to dealt with at regional level, because Flemings have the impression to pay for Walloons.