HELL IN A VERY SMALL PLACE

Belgium's general election: A model for Europe?: Belgium's peculiar system of national politics is failing to heal ethnic divisions or to stem the rise of the xenophobic far-right (The Economist, May 22nd 2003)

The delegates arguing for the existence of a European demos might be a little less confident if they read the local newspapers in Belgium. Forget about Europe; there is still no Belgian demos. Linguistic divisions have proved too powerful to create a single political culture even in a small country of 10m people-a fact demonstrated once again by the Belgian elections of May 18th. Indeed, the very term "Belgian election" is misleading. Two elections were held on the same day in the country called Belgium, featuring different parties and leaders, depending on whether the vote was taking place in Dutch-speaking Flanders or French-speaking Wallonia.

In the Flemish election the Liberal party led by Guy Verhofstadt, the Belgian prime minister, won a narrow victory ahead of the Flemish socialists, Christian Democrats and the far-right Vlaams Blok. In the francophone elections the francophone Socialists emerged as the biggest party, just ahead of the francophone Liberals. The only genuinely common theme was the Greens' collapse-in both Flanders and Wallonia.

Belgian politics now requires the various political parties to form a governing coalition. An unstated requirement is that the prime minister almost certainly has to be Flemish, given that 60% of the population are Dutch-speaking. No Walloon has got the top job since the 1970s. So it is all but certain that Mr Verhofstadt will continue as prime minister, probably at the head of a four-party coalition of Liberals and Socialists.

A second term in office will let the boyish 50-year-old prime minister start working on his image as a European elder statesman, perhaps with a view to landing a top job in the European Union.
But further years of a Verhofstadt government will also underline the extent to which politicians are hamstrung by the consensual coalition-building ways of Belgian politics.

When Mr Verhofstadt first emerged on the national scene, he was a vigorous and unusual proponent of economic liberalism. He was even nicknamed "Baby Thatcher". Yet, though his political origins place him on the centre-right, the need to form a coalition with the Socialists means that he has had to govern from the centre-left. The early Verhofstadt who spoke of privatisation and the need to encourage entrepreneurs has given way to a prime minister who flirts with the anti-globalisation movement and whose liberalism is largely expressed through social legislation, such as the legalisation of gay marriage and euthanasia.

Remind us again about the culture we share with Europe... Posted by Orrin Judd at May 24, 2003 1:19 PM