Flemish-Walloon conflict
The conflict between the Dutch and French-speaking inhabitants of the Kingdom of Belgium , which has been going on since the 19th century , is known as the Flemish-Walloon conflict . The Dutch-speaking Belgians concentrate largely on Flanders and are referred to as Flemings , even if the relatively few Dutch -speakers living in the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital region only consider themselves partially Flemish. More than three quarters of French-speaking Belgians, also known as Francophones , live in the Walloon region (only these are called Walloons ), but they also make up the vast majority in the bilingual Brussels-Capital region and also predominate after a large number of immigrants Brussels environs in the past decades in six municipalities bordering the Brussels region and belonging to Flanders.
The terms "Flemish" and "Walloon"
The word Flemish ( Belgian Dutch ) has only been used for all Dutch speakers in Belgium since the 19th century . Flanders previously referred to the historic county of Flanders , which comprised north-west Belgium and parts of northern France. The word Flemish in its new meaning was now also used for the Dutch-speaking residents of the historic Duchy of Brabant and County Loon , referring to all Dutch-speaking residents of Belgium.
The word Walloon went through a similar development . Originally, the word only referred to the French dialects that were spoken around Liege . The term was later expanded in meaning until Walloon and Wallonia were used for the entire French- speaking area in Belgium outside of Brussels. Many Flemings use whales (see also Welsche ) to refer to the entirety of the native French-speaking Belgians, who usually make a strict distinction between Walloons ( les Wallons ) and Brussels ( les Bruxellois ) (collective term: the Francophones ( les francophones )).
What is usually referred to in German as the Flemish-Walloon conflict or Belgian language dispute is indicated in Belgium with the expressions (Dutch) communautair conflict or (French) conflit communautaire . Communauté stands for (language) community , i.e. 'community conflict'.
The small group of Belgians with a German mother tongue ( German-speaking community ) is largely uninvolved in this conflict, apart from the fact that the German-speaking area is located within the Walloon region and thus the German language community is also involved in conflicts between the regions. In the past it has benefited in part from the internal Belgian conflict, as the establishment of the language communities in Belgium enabled the constitutionalization of the German language as Belgium's third national language.
The beginnings
There have been numerous politically motivated attempts to identify a “Flemish” or “Walloon” people in earlier history. An example of such a political myth is the Golden Spurs Battle : a Flemish infantry army of farmers and guild members defeated a French army of knights in 1302, which in Flemish national circles is often interpreted as early evidence of a language and cultural conflict. This overlooks the fact that the Duchy of Brabant , largely speaking Low German , was on the side of the French king, and the county of Namur , whose soldiers were French-speaking, fought on the side of the Flemish peasant army. In principle, the Flemish-Walloon conflict is no older than the Belgian state and particularly came to a head in the 20th century.
When the southern part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands separated in the Belgian Revolution in 1830 , the Kingdom of Belgium was created. In the new Belgian state, as a reaction to the diffuse linguistic conditions in the former United Kingdom, the French language was introduced as the sole official language, also for the Dutch- speaking residents. In addition, Catholicism (to which almost all Belgians belonged at the time) was declared the state religion of the monarchy . French became the sole administrative language in the army, in parliament and in school lessons. Dutch was the "language of the Dutch" and "the peasants". In Flanders , the Dutch dialects were only used in primary school, from secondary school onwards, only French was used . Real was the young Belgian state l'État franco-belge , a Franco-Belgian state. "Flemish" ( le flamand ) was used as a dirty word for the dialects of the northern parts of the country.
The downgrading of the Dutch language was not seen as a problem by the educated and leading circles, as the educated classes spoke French throughout Belgium. Only slowly did a “ Flemish Movement ” (Dutch Vlaamse Bewegungsing ) emerge , which resisted the suppression of their language, first in the circles of educated petty bourgeoisie. At the end of the 19th century, the movement emerged from the shadow of the pure cultural scene and politicians from various parties began to define and improve the situation of their Dutch language. A milestone was the establishment of bilingual education in Flanders at secondary level (French and Dutch).
Towards the end of the 19th century, the "Wallonia Movement" emerged as a backlash. The name is misleading as the movement first arose in Flanders among French educated citizens. They wanted to defend the position of their French language in administration and teaching against the threat of mandatory bilingualism in Flanders. The extension of the right to vote also accelerated the emergence of a Walloon movement. In Wallonia, the leading circles feared domination by the numerically superior Flemings: Agrarian Flanders was largely conservative Catholic, Wallonia, which was shaped by heavy industry, had an anticlerical tradition that was strongly socialist in the 20th century. The Flemish-Walloon conflict, which at first glance seemed to have only to do with language, was in fact also a social conflict, connected with the occupation of jobs and the exercise of power.
The First World War exacerbated the conflict. Numerous Flemings in the Belgian army fought against the German imperial army in the trench warfare in West Flanders . They saw how their French-speaking officers ignored their language. The language conflict was also presented as a social divide. The Flemish Movement developed the myth that many ordinary Flemish soldiers had to die in the trenches because of difficulties communicating with their French-speaking commanders. Many Flemings worked together with the German occupying power in the occupied part of Belgium . These “activists” were severely punished by the French-speaking Belgian authorities after the war. As a result, the Flemish movement became heavily politicized after the war.
In various parties, important politicians are now campaigning for the official use of Dutch. The establishment of the University of Ghent , which has been teaching in Dutch since 1930 , became a milestone in their struggle for self-assertion .
The Flemish Movement of this period was also an emancipatory movement that linked the equality of Dutch in Belgium with the development and education of the poor Flemish worker. In the course of the 1930s, many members of the Flemish Movement finally called for the separation from the French-ruled Belgian state and a move towards the national language area.
The Flemish parties VNV and Verdinaso developed National Socialist party programs and rituals for this . During the Second World War , many of its members therefore worked together with the occupying power. A "German-Flemish Working Group" was also formed under the nationalist leader Jef Van de Wiele . After the war they were accused of this collaboration. On the Francophone side, there was also a movement collaborating with the occupiers, the Rexists .
The escalation after 1945 and the subsequent federalization of Belgium
The conflicts after World War II continued to split the Belgian state in two.
A chronological overview:
- Dispute over the Belgian King Leopold III.
During the Second World War, Belgium was occupied by the German Empire. The Belgian ruler became a prisoner of war and negotiated with the Third Reich about the future of his dynasty. After the end of the war and his return to the Belgian royal throne, Leopold III. therefore heavily criticized. In 1946, however, the king was exonerated from the charge of treason by a commission. In 1949 the ethnic groups in Belgium voted on Leopold III. as king. It found approval with 72%, especially in Catholic Flanders with a strongly monarchist Christian Democratic party. The majority of the socialist population in the Walloon Region voted against the king with 58%. The result was sometimes violent strikes and protests. 1951 thanked Leopold III. in favor of his eldest son Baudouin . - Changing economic situation in the two halves of the country
Traditionally, Wallonia, with its mining and textile industries, was the richer half of the country. With the emergence of a service-oriented economy and the shift of industry towards petrochemicals, many investors discovered Flanders with its ports ( Port of Antwerp ) and a well-educated working class with low wage demands. The result was that in the 1950s and 1960s the Flemish economy grew much faster than the Walloon one: while the rural areas of Flanders benefited considerably from structural change and modernized, Wallonia has been struggling with economic decline since the 1960s. In 1966, the per capita gross domestic product in Flanders reached the level of Wallonia, and in the following years the rise of Flanders continued, while Wallonia tried unsuccessfully to reform its heavy industry economy. The Flemish-Walloon conflict thus acquired a strong economic component. Walloon politicians tried in vain to usurp the levers of power in economic policy. The gross domestic product per capita in Brussels exceeds that of Flanders by far. A major reason for this is that almost half of the workforce in Brussels lives outside the capital region. In 2016, 31% lived in Flanders and 17.6% in Wallonia.
Economic indicators of the regions Brussels capital Flanders Wallonia Belgium - gross domestic product per capita (2018) € 69,400 € 41,000 € 29,000 € 40,200 - taxable income per capita (2017) € 14,372 € 19,636 € 17,281 € 18,331 - unemployment rate (2018) 13.2% 3.4% 8.5% 6.0% Population (million) 1.20 (2018) 6.55 (2018) 3.62 (2018) 11.38 (2018)
- Establishing the language border In
1962 a commission set a language border. Prior to that, in 1960, heavy strikes against a number of government austerity measures had made it clear that the two language groups wanted more economic autonomy. The entities " Flanders " and " Wallonia " were thus determined territorially for the first time, by legally dividing Belgium into three monolingual areas - Flanders, Wallonia, German- Belgium - and a bilingual area of Brussels . In the next few decades, the status of Brussels - originally Dutch-speaking, now with a Francophone majority - and the fact that individual communities belong to a certain language area (e.g. Voeren / Fourons) triggered numerous conflicts. -
University - Leuven Vlaams / Louvain-la-Neuve
The university in Leuven , in the Flemish region, had a French and a Dutch language department. The Flemings demanded a monolingual (Dutch-speaking) university. Even before the student revolts in May 1968 , the division of the Catholic University of Leuven began : The French-speaking department of the University of Leuven ( Université catholique de Louvain (UCL)) was relocated to Wallonia in 1971 - to a newly established test- tube town : Louvain-la-Neuve or to German "New Leuven", the first city founding in Belgium since that of Charleroi in 1666. - A total of five state reforms - 1970, 1980, 1988–1989, 1993, 2001–2003
The state reforms have made Belgium a federal state. In order to meet the need for more independence from the other language groups, the administration of the country has been so fragmented that there is no longer any question of an efficient, uniform administration. The political parties have also split into Flemish and Walloon regional parties . They are only found roughly in political families (e.g. socialists or Christian democrats) when the central government is formed. In addition to the central government based in Brussels, there is a division into three language communities and three regions , which are not, however, congruent. The Flemish Community (which has been merged with the Flemish Regional Administration), the French Community and the Brussels Capital Region are based in Brussels, the Walloon Region in Namur and the German-speaking Community in Eupen. The latter was given a number of powers by the Walloon regional government that actually only belong to one region.
- The communities have the right to give instructions in matters related to natural persons. These include education (teaching in the community language Dutch, French or German, universities, but also integration institutions), common good (social issues), sport, culture and the media. By means of decrees, the communities can take and enforce decisions completely autonomously from the central government within their competences.
- The regions are responsible for local affairs. I.e. for spatial planning and urban development, economy, labor policy, agriculture, motorways, traffic ( MIVB in Brussels, De Lijn in Flanders, TEC in Wallonia, but not the national national association of Belgian railways ), foreign trade as well as municipal and provincial legislation.
The language problem, which was particularly focused in Brussels after the language border was drawn in 1962, has meanwhile shifted to the Flemish border around Brussels. Six of the particularly controversial facility communities are also located there. The status of these municipalities is characterized by the fact that they had a minority of at least 20% French-speaking when the language border was determined. They were granted the right to communicate in French with the local government on request and to set up francophone kindergartens and elementary schools if the French-speaking community pays for them. However, the design of the facilities is interpreted by the Flemish side as aid for the Francophones in Flanders that is slowly being dismantled. This means that the special rights for these municipalities should be abolished in the long term after the Francophones have adapted to their Flemish environment. The facilities are thus seen as temporary integration aid. The Francophones are of the opinion that the facilities are a permanent right for French-speakers in Flanders - with the effect that the immigration of French-speaking Brussels residents to the Rand and especially to the six facilities drug bos , Linkebeek , Sint-Genesius-Rode , Wemmel , Kraainem and Wezembeek-Oppem led to a reversal of the majority in favor of the French speakers. Sometimes their share of the population is over 80% (e.g. in Linkebeek). The resulting conflicts are often strongly fueled by francophone nationalists from the DéFI ( Démocrate Fédéraliste Indépendant ) and UF ( Union des Francophones ), as well as from the Vlaams Belang and the N-VA on the Flemish side.
The demands of the French speakers include: a. the integration of the facilities into the capital region of Brussels and generally the preservation of Belgium as a general state. The Flemish, on the other hand (especially the two parties mentioned above, which received more than 40% of the votes in the 2010 parliamentary election) are openly critical of Belgium and want Flanders to be separated from Wallonia and the abolition of the facilities that openly undermine the linguistic territorial principle of Flanders, because in Flanders, Dutch is the only official language. Again and again there are protests of the Flemish Nationals in the facilities communities with exclamations like aan Adjust of opkrassen (adjust or get away) welkom in Vlaanderen (ironically: Welcome to Flanders). Split now! (Separate now! - meaning the whole of Belgium), België burst! (Tear up Belgium!), Facilities away ermee! (Away with the facilities), Vlaanderen onafhankelijk nu! (Flanders independent - now!) Or Geen connection! (No connection! - the municipalities with facilities to Brussels) and the like are chanted.
Brussels special case
The Brussels-Capital Region includes Brussels itself and 18 other municipalities. The region is densely populated with around 6,900 inhabitants per square kilometer and the 19 municipalities in the region have in fact grown together into a single city. In the Brussels-Capital Region, the official languages are both French and Dutch . This is why the communities in the capital region exercise their powers together. For example, 20% of the schools in the capital region are Flemish and 80% French, although the ratio is slowly shifting again in favor of the Dutch-speaking schools. There is a French-speaking and a Dutch-speaking university ( Université Libre de Bruxelles in Ixelles / Elsene and the Vrije Universiteit Brussel in Etterbeek ), as well as a large number of cultural institutions for both language groups (examples would be the Botanique der Francophonen in Saint-Josse-ten-Noode / Sint-Joost-ten-Node and the Ancienne Belgique of the Flemish Community in the city of Brussels on Boulevard Anspach and Anspachlaan). There are also clinics that are assigned to individual language groups, for example the Universitair Ziekenhuis Brussel in Jette or the Hôpital Érasme in Anderlecht . All official institutions are bilingual. The same goes for signs, stop names and notices. Dutch is particularly present in the city of Brussels through the many Flemish institutions, but also through the nearly 250,000 Flemish commuters who come to work in Brussels every day. In the colloquial language, however, French dominates.
The Dutch or Flemish dialect dominated until the 19th century, although French is the lingua franca in the city today. The Belgian French-speakers do not constitute the majority, but only the largest group in the city, which has an extremely high proportion of foreigners (of European and non-European origin) by Western European standards (46.3%). Due to the urban exodus of many Francophone families who settled in the surrounding municipalities belonging to Flanders, the dominance of French was no longer limited to the capital region. In Flanders, therefore, there is talk of the ever-expanding "oil stain" Brussels, which is part of the above. Problem leads. The language conflicts in the bilingual capital were thus transported to the surrounding area. The number of Dutch speakers in Brussels is only around 15% (this is the result that the Flemish-speaking parties regularly record in the capital region).
The Brussels-Capital Region has the same tasks as the other two regions, but, unlike them, has no statutory autonomy and can e.g. B. not regulate the election procedure for the regional parliament independently. The political realities in the capital region are extremely complex. In addition to the regional government, the two language communities exercise rights in Brussels. There is also a governor of the central government. Within the regional parliament and the community commission, the positions are assigned according to a fixed, ethnic proportional key, which does not reflect the actual number of Flemings and Walloons in Brussels, but corresponds to the minority legislation negotiated by Flanders (for Flemings in Brussels). The composition of the municipal parliaments is again determined individually by proportional representation.
Since a lot of well-paid positions are not filled by Brussels residents but by residents from the province of Flemish Brabant (who generally also meet the strict language requirements for public bodies such as the police better than many Brussels residents themselves), their taxes are mainly due there. In 2008 around 64% of inbound commuters lived in Flanders and around 36% in Wallonia. On the other hand, a strong concentration of social risks can be observed in Brussels (extremely high unemployment figures of over 20%, many welfare recipients, many unskilled foreigners from the Maghreb and Central Africa ). The infrastructure and capital costs must (should) be met primarily from the own resources of the 19 capital city municipalities and the region's budget . Since this is nowhere near enough, a number of transfers come into play that allow money to flow from Flanders to Brussels. In the course of the formation of the government in 2011, additional transfer payments for Brussels were agreed after the Flemish parties were against more money for Brussels for a long time, referring to the fragmented administration within Brussels and the rampant waste of funds as a result. On the other hand, Brussels has to bear the burden of around 350,000 commuters every day, which requires an infrastructure that goes far beyond the actual number of inhabitants.
Development since 2007
The political parties in both parts of the country only address their own language populations. There is cooperation with the “ideological sister party” from the other half of the country, but the political differences of opinion have increased in the last few decades.
Most of the political debates in Belgium receive a language-political aspect shortly after they arise (French aspect communautaire or ndl. Communautair aspect ). An example of this was the dispute over the noise pollution in the vicinity of Brussels airport , in which the Belgian communities accused each other of trying to protect their respective population groups to the detriment of other residents. Over the years, this has resulted in a highly complex dossier on departure routes and noise levels, including court judgments and legal texts.
Many young people are increasingly using English as the lingua franca to communicate with one another. The place names are only monolingual on the motorways outside Brussels, as are the station announcements. This leads to further communication problems: the French city of Lille in Flanders has the name Rijsel. The Walloon city of Liège is called either Liège (French) or Luik (Dutch) , depending on which part of the country you are in on the A3 motorway .
Parliamentary elections were held in Belgium on June 10, 2007. At first it was not possible to form a government. One of the main reasons is that the Flemish parties want to achieve greater independence for the regions in the course of the coalition negotiations, especially in labor market and tax policy, which either the Walloon or the Flemish side rejected.
Another point of conflict was the Flemish fringe communities with mainly French-speaking populations around the capital region of Brussels. This primarily refers to the six municipalities with facilities in the Brussels area. Linked to this was the question of the continued existence of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency , which, contrary to customary practice, was laid out across regions. It made it possible for francophone voters in the Flemish region of Brussels to vote for Brussels candidates from parties belonging to the French-speaking population group. The majority of all Flemish parties demanded a division of the constituency strictly along the provincial borders, which means that only Flemish parties would have had a realistic chance of political representation in the Halle-Vilvoorde sub-area. After years of dispute, a compromise was finally found to the effect that the constituency was separated, but citizens in the municipalities with facilities can also vote for party lists from the capital region.
After the designated Prime Minister Yves Leterme initially failed to form a government, the incumbent Prime Minister Verhofstadt was commissioned by the King on December 3rd to form a government. On December 21, 2007, the transitional government led by Verhofstadt was sworn in and was to remain in office until March 23, 2008.
Leterme and Van Rompuy governments
On March 18, 2008, Yves Leterme managed to form a coalition of five parties. The new government was formed by the Christian Democrats and Liberals of both language groups and the Walloon Socialists. The national Flemish N-VA , with which Letermes Christian Democratic CD&V had entered into an electoral alliance, was not involved in the government.
Almost exactly four months later, on July 15, Leterme submitted his resignation to King Albert II. He did not succeed in initiating the necessary state reform. Albert II refused the resignation. On December 18, 2008, an attempt by Leterme to influence a court became known. It was about the Dutch / Belgian Fortis Bank. Leterme then offered the king the resignation of his entire government, which Albert II accepted on December 22, 2008. Herman Van Rompuy was Belgian Prime Minister and Head of Government from December 30, 2008 to December 1, 2009. Then Leterme took the office again. In April 2010 the renewed dispute over the constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde led to the renewed failure of the Leterme government after the Flemish VLD had left the five-party coalition.
Formation of government 2010/11
In the early elections on June 13, 2010 , the Flemish nationalists became the strongest political force, closely followed by the Francophone socialists of the PS . Several attempts to form a government coalition failed in the following months after the Flemish and Walloon parties failed to reach an agreement on a new state reform.
The formation of a government turned out to be extremely tedious. On September 15, 2011, the eight negotiating parties finally agreed on the first steps towards state reform. The focus of the agreement is the division of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency, which has been controversial for decades. Previously, the 15-month acting Prime Minister Yves Leterme announced his withdrawal from national politics, which accelerated Elio Di Rupo's efforts to form a new government.
On December 6, 2011, Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo, together with his 12 ministers and six state secretaries, was sworn in 541 days after the election, replacing Yves Leterme, who was only managing director for a year and a half .
State reform 2012
On July 13, 2012, the parliamentarians decided to reform the state to defuse the conflict. 106 MPs voted for and 42 against a split in the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency, which has been controversial for 50 years . The votes against came mainly from nationalist Flemings.
The parliamentarians thereby laid the foundation for further reforms.
Election and government formation 2014
In the elections to the national parliament and the Flemish regional parliament in 2014, the N-VA was by far the strongest party and was able to increase its share of the vote considerably. At the national level, there was a coalition of N-VA, CD&V, Open Vld and MR as the only francophone partner. Charles Michel (MR) became the new Prime Minister on October 11, 2014. The N-VA refrained from making its demand for Belgium's conversion into a confederation a condition for a coalition, and instead sought a coalition without socialists (Francophone PS and Flemish sp.a). The new government is the first Belgian government without socialist involvement in 26 years. With the integration of by far the largest Flemish nationalist party into the Belgian government, the language dispute was significantly defused.
Election 2019
After the N-VA in December 2018 dispute over the UN migration pact the Government Michel had left the party again concentrated more on their demand for a confederal state as a precursor to the Flemish independence.
In the 2019 parliamentary elections , the N-VA lost a considerable amount of votes, while Vlaams Belang gained even more and the Flemish nationalist parties account for almost half of all Flemish MPs in the Chamber of Deputies.
Continuation of Belgium
Demands for a reorganization of Belgium into a federal state, a confederation or a complete abolition of the Belgian state were more and more made by the Flemish side. The attribute “Belgian” is used more by francophone institutions (for example the “Belgian Red Cross”, the “Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française RTBF” or the official tourist office “Belgium Tourism”), while the Flemish institutions tend to use that Use the attribute “Flemish”. In the course of the previous state reforms since 1970, Belgium has become a federal state and many competencies have been transferred to the regions and communities. Nevertheless, the social security systems like u. a. Pension and unemployment insurance is still organized at national level, and tax sovereignty also largely rests with the central government. The resulting transfers are a thorn in the side of Flemish nationalist parties ( N-VA , Vlaams Belang ). You are calling for the social security systems to be split up; CD&V and Open Vld also do this to a very limited extent , which the Francophone side strictly rejects. According to a study by the Catholic University of Leuven , there were net transfers of € 6.08 billion from Flanders to the other two regions in 2009 (€ 5.8 billion to Wallonia, € 280 million to Brussels), of which € 3.86 billion Euros on the social security systems.
The N-VA and Vlaams Belang aim for an independent Flanders. Without giving up the long-term goal of Flemish independence, the N-VA calls for Belgium to be converted into a confederation. Belgium should therefore consist of two member states, Flanders and Wallonia, which in principle regulate all matters themselves. Only a few matters, which the two member states jointly transfer to the confederation through a founding treaty, should fall within its competence. Brussels and the German-speaking Community are to receive a special statute. Brussels should regulate all so-called basic matters (e.g. police) itself, in so-called personal matters (e.g. social security, schools) the residents of Brussels should have to choose between the Flemish and Walloon systems (which is already the case in the field of education Case is).
Such demands are gaining in weight because the proportion of votes held by Flemish nationalist parties has grown significantly in recent years. Up until the 1980s, they always received less than 20% of the votes in Flanders, while N-VA, Vlaams Belang received around 44 and 43% of the votes in Flanders, respectively, in the 2019 parliamentary and regional elections .
There is no significant French-speaking political force questioning the Belgian state. There were repeatedly splinter parties like the rassemblement Wallonie-France , which advocates the annexation of the French-speaking parts of Belgium to France, but their share of the vote was always small.
See also
literature
- Horst Siegemund: Party politics and "language dispute" in Belgium , contributions to political science Volume 40, Verlag Peter Lang, Frankfurt a. M. 1989, ISBN 3-631-41809-4 .
- Frank Berge; Alexander Grasse: Belgium - disintegration or federal future model? - The Flemish-Walloon Conflict and the German-speaking Community , Regionalization in Europe Volume 3, Leske and Budrich, Opladen 2003, ISBN 3-8100-3486-X .
- Marion Schmitz-Reiners: Belgium for Germans. Insights into an inconspicuous country , Christoph Links Verlag, Berlin 2006, ISBN 3-86153-389-8 .
- Johannes Koll (Ed.): Belgium. History - Politics - Culture - Economy , Aschendorff Verlag, Münster 2007, ISBN 978-3-402-00408-1 .
- Christoph Driessen: History of Belgium - The Split Nation, Verlag Friedrich Pustet, Regensburg 2018, ISBN 978-3-7917-2975-6 .
Web links
- The Belgian Crisis or: A Torn Country (Publication by the Friedrich Ebert Foundation , December 2007; PDF; 135 kB)
Individual evidence
- ↑ Knack: Bijna help jobs in Brussels uitgevoerd door pendelaar. Retrieved October 6, 2018 .
- ↑ Eurostat database: General regional statistics: Regional national accounts - ESA2010 (t_reg_eco): tgs00003
- ↑ State Statistical Office: Tax statistics on income subject to tax on natural persons by municipality of residence
- ↑ Eurostat database (general regional statistics: regional labor market statistics (reg_lmk))
- ^ French-speaking Linkebeek in Flanders-Report-EN-FRANCE24 on YouTube , November 12, 2007, accessed on April 9, 2019.
- ↑ Linkebeek 6 mars 2005: police flamande et neo-fascistes on YouTube , April 18, 2010, accessed on August 27, 2020.
- ↑ Intimidation d'élus francophones on YouTube , April 18, 2010, accessed on August 27, 2020.
- ↑ EURES: Labor market information: Belgium - Région De Bruxelles-Capitale / Brussels Hoofdstedelijk Gewest. Retrieved May 29, 2012 .
- ↑ De Staandaard: Verhofstadt aanvaardt opdracht koning
- ↑ Tagesschau : Agreement on Belgian interim government (tagesschau.de archive) from December 19, 2007
- ↑ Tagesschau : Five-party coalition ends nine-month crisis ( memento from December 20, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) from March 18, 2008.
- ↑ Tagesschau : After only four months in office - Belgium's Prime Minister Leterme resigns (tagesschau.de archive) on July 15, 2008
- ↑ Focus : Government is falling apart , April 22, 2010.
- ↑ FAZ.de: Parliamentary Election in Belgium - A Flemish Lion in the Stars and Stripes , June 14, 2010.
- ↑ Historic agreement at the negotiating table: BHV is split , BRF online , September 15, 2011.
- ↑ Leterme leaves politics - no later than December 31 , BRF online , September 14, 2011.
- ↑ Belgium swears in new government headed by Elio Di Rupo. BBC, December 6, 2011, accessed December 7, 2011 .
- ↑ a b c d Belgium: State reform to defuse language dispute. Spiegel Online, July 13, 2012, accessed July 16, 2012 .
- ↑ http://www.hln.be/hln/nl/17781/Regeringsvorming/article/detail/2079947/2014/10/08/De-Wever-Ik-zou-socialisten-liefst-nooit-meer-in-regering -terugzien.dhtml
- ↑ De Morgen: N-VA-campagnedag over confederalisme: "In ons model the Groep van Tien niet Meer vergaderen"
- ↑ Mouton, Alain; Killemaes, Daan: “ Intreslasten doen transfers exploderen. Nieuwe studie schuift 16 miljard naar voren “, Trends , October 11, 2012 (PDF; 620 kB).
- ↑ https://www.n-va.be/sites/default/files/statuten20200208-2.pdf
- ↑ N-VA: definitive congress text from February 2, 2014 (PDF; 2.1 MB)