Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency
The Belgian constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde ( Dutch Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde , French Bruxelles-Hal-Vilvorde , often abbreviated as BHV in both languages ) was until 2012 the only constituency for the Belgian Chamber of Deputies and the European Parliament that spanned several Regions extended. The area has around 1.6 million inhabitants.
The right to exist of this constituency was very controversial against the background of the Flemish-Walloon conflict , its division along the regional borders was a central demand of the Flemish parties. In September 2011, eight parties came to an agreement under the leadership of the Francophone Parti Socialiste , which was finally decided by the Chamber of Deputies on July 14, 2012.
Political background
Current Belgian politics is shaped by the conflict between the Flemish and the French-speaking population groups, which is usually referred to as the Flemish-Walloon conflict . Relevant nationally active parties have therefore no longer existed in the Belgian party system since the 1970s; rather, there are independent Flemish and French-speaking parties for the individual currents of the political spectrum . Their members in the federal parliament therefore also act as representatives of their respective language group.
Belgium has been a federal state since 1993, divided into regions and communities . The borders of the regions follow the 1962 division of Belgium into language areas: Flanders in the north is Dutch -speaking , Wallonia in the south (with the exception of a small German-speaking area in the east) is French-speaking, and the Brussels-Capital region , which is completely enclosed by Flanders, is bilingual in French and Dutch. with most of the residents being French-speaking. With the exception of Brussels, the regions are divided into provinces , which in turn are subdivided into districts (sometimes also referred to as arrondissements ), which essentially perform administrative tasks.
The Belgian Chamber of Deputies is elected in eleven constituencies using proportional representation. The total number of seats to be allocated per constituency is determined in advance according to the population.
Delimitation, structure and special features
The constituency comprised the Brussels-Capital Region and the adjacent arrondissement Halle-Vilvoorde in the province of Flemish Brabant . This differed from the others, which each comprised the area of a province. The only other deviation from this was the constituency of Leuven, which corresponded to the arrondissement of the same name and thus included the part of the province of Flemish Brabant that did not belong to the constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
The Brussels region is officially bilingual, but the vast majority of the eligible population are French-speaking Belgians. The Arrondissement Halle-Vilvoorde, on the other hand, belongs to the Dutch-speaking area as part of the Flanders region. In particular, there are numerous French-speaking citizens living in the communes bordering the Brussels region (also known as Vlaamse Rand , Brusselse Rand or périphérie ). They make up the majority in five of the six so-called facility municipalities , which are part of the Dutch-speaking area, but where French-speaking citizens enjoy certain facilities. For example, they can communicate with the local government in French, and French-speaking kindergartens and primary schools are permitted. However, these “facilities” have long been controversial, with Flemish politicians calling for their abolition, arguing that French-speaking citizens should integrate into their Flemish environment.
The main peculiarity of the constituency was the fact that both Flemish and French-speaking parties competed in it. In the remaining ten constituencies, voters could only choose between parties belonging to one language group. Since the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency also extended to Flemish territory, this option was not only available to residents of the bilingual Brussels-Capital region, but also to French-speaking residents of the Flemish municipalities in the constituency.
Electoral and constitutional context
Traditional Belgian electoral system
The Belgian Chamber of Deputies is elected by proportional representation in constituencies. By 1993 there were 30 constituencies. The number of seats in the individual constituencies depends on the size of the population (including foreigners). Until 1993, each of the then nine provinces was divided into at least two constituencies. The special feature of the electoral system was the so-called apparentation , in which the parties could combine their lists from different constituencies of the same province: the parties initially received as many seats in each constituency as they had full Hare quotas. This quota results from dividing the number of valid votes in the constituency by the number of seats in the constituency. This is calculated by dividing the number of valid votes by the number of seats to be allocated. With five seats to be allocated there was one seat for every full fifth of the votes, with six mandates one seat for every full sixth, etc. Seats that could not be allocated in this way were allocated at the provincial level. Only parties that had achieved at least 66% of the Hare quota in at least one constituency of the province were allowed to participate.
The seats were distributed at the provincial level in such a way that they were distributed proportionally to the parties within the province using the D'Hondt method . The parties received a corresponding number of seats in addition to those they had won directly in the constituency. These additional seats were distributed to the constituencies in a complicated process in such a way that each constituency received the specified number of seats. As a result, there was a proportional distribution of seats within the province through apparentation and each constituency of the province had the number of seats that corresponded to its share of the population. However, no proportional distribution of seats in the individual constituencies was guaranteed.
1993 reform
In the course of the Belgian state reform in 1993 , the number of members of the Chamber of Deputies was reduced from 212 to 150, at the same time the number of constituencies was reduced from 30 to 20 and the threshold clause from 66 to 33% of the Hare quota. Since then, three provinces have consisted of only one constituency. The province of Brabant , which was divided into the constituencies of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde, Leuven and Nivelles, was dissolved on January 1, 1995. The Brussels region has not belonged to any province since then; the rest of Brabant was divided along the language border into the provinces of Flemish Brabant (Vlaams-Brabant) and Walloon Brabant (Brabant wallon, identical to the constituency of Nivelles). The area of the three constituencies remained unchanged. Despite the dissolution of the province of Brabant, the apparentation was carried out on the level of the old province.
Reform 2002
Through an amending law of December 2002, each province has since formed a single constituency. The distribution of seats is based on the D'Hondt procedure , with a 5% threshold. For the former province of Brabant, this amending law provided for special provisions that included retaining the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. However, this special regulation was temporarily suspended for the 2003 election by the judgment of the Constitutional Court of February 26, 2003 and declared null and void by a further judgment of May 26, 2003. In contrast to the rest of Belgium, the procedure for allocating seats that was in force until 2002 continued to apply. However, due to the ruling of the Constitutional Court, it was now only possible to combine lists for Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde with either a list from the Leuven constituency or one from the Nivelles constituency. It was no longer possible to combine lists from all three constituencies. In the judgment of May 26, 2003, not only parts of the 2002 legislative amendments were declared unconstitutional, but also the continued existence of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency. Since the constituencies in the rest of the country now follow the provincial borders, it is an unjustified unequal treatment that the province of Flemish Brabant is the only province that does not form its own constituency. The ruling set a deadline of June 24, 2007 for a change in the constituency division. However, the deadline was ignored by politicians and the 2010 election took place on the basis of the previous constituency division.
Flemish bill
In July 2007, several MPs from CD&V and N-VA introduced a bill that provided for the division of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. Flemish Brabant and the Brussels region should each form their own constituency. Since a completely separate distribution of seats would have been disadvantageous for the Flemish parties, the apparentation in the former province of Brabant should be retained in a modified form. Lists for the Brussels constituency should be able to combine either with a list from the Flemish Brabant constituency or from the Walloon Brabant constituency, but it should not be possible to combine lists for all three constituencies for apparation. To participate in the distribution of seats, a share of the vote of 5% in one of the constituencies should be required. The draft law found a majority in the interior committee of the Chamber of Deputies in November 2007, but a final vote on the draft law was delayed by the Francophone side and also by the German-speaking community .
controversy
The preservation of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency, which has existed since the state was founded in 1830, was part of a compromise between the language groups in the 1960s when determining language boundaries . In the course of time, however, the Flemish parties saw it as an unjustified advantage for the French-speaking residents of Flemish communities, which would otherwise not exist in the Belgian electoral system (e.g. for Flemish residents of Walloon communities). One of their central demands with regard to the future structure of the Belgian federal state therefore included the division of the constituency along regional borders. As a result of the division, the Brussels region would become a new, independent constituency, and the province of Flemish Brabant (consisting of the arrondissements of Halle-Vilvoorde and Leuven) would also form a single constituency like the other Belgian provinces.
Such a reorganization of the constituencies would mean that the French-speaking voters in the Flemish municipalities would no longer be able to vote for (Brussels) candidates from the French-speaking parties. Although these parties would not be prevented from nominating their own candidates in a Flemish Brabant constituency, the overall proportion of French-speaking voters in this constituency would be so low that these candidates would have no prospect of parliamentary seats unless several Francophone parties represented one joint List on.
The demand for a corresponding division of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde was largely consensus within the Flemish parties, but it was also almost unanimously rejected by the French-speaking parties. Since it is difficult to change the constituency of the constituencies without the consent of both language groups in the Belgian parliament, it was presented as part of an extended compromise on state reform. One suggestion by the Francophone side, for example, was to add all French-speaking communities in the Brussels area to the Brussels Capital Region. Such an expansion of the Brussels region would ultimately have created a territorial connection (corridor) between the predominantly francophone capital region, which has so far been an enclave in Flanders, and francophone Wallonia. Such a border shift - regardless of the details - to the detriment of Flanders was again flatly rejected by the Flemish side.
The question of the possible splitting of the constituency BHV was also at the center of the coalition negotiations after the parliamentary elections on June 10, 2007. The conflicting views of the Flemish and French-speaking parties on this issue were a major factor in the breakup of the governing coalitions in July 2008 and April 2010.
Constituency reform
After the early elections in June 2010 , a dispute over the future of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde constituency and a general reform of the Belgian state led to the formation of a government being blocked. The two election winners, the Flemish Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (N-VA) and the French-speaking Parti Socialiste (PS), could not agree on a state reform, whereupon the previous Prime Minister Yves Leterme had to remain in office. Fifteen months after the parliamentary elections, eight parties under the leadership of the PS agreed to split the constituency; the N-VA was not involved in this agreement. The Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde and Leuven constituencies were replaced by the Brussels constituency, identical to the Brussels region, and the Flemish Brabant constituency, identical to the province of the same name. Only citizens in the six municipalities with facilities in the vicinity of the capital are also allowed to vote for candidates in Brussels. As in the rest of Belgium, the seats are distributed at constituency level using the D'Hondt procedure , with a threshold of 5% of the valid votes in the constituency.
Individual evidence
- ^ A b Lieven De Winter, Marc Swyngedouw, Patrick Dumont: "Party system (s) and electoral behavior in Belgium: From stability to balkanisation". In: West European Politics . Vol. 29, No. 5, 2006, ISSN 0140-2382 , pp. 933-956 ( online edition, access required ).
- ↑ Kris Deschouwer: "Belgium - A federal state in search of stability." In: Jahrbuch des Föderalismus : Vol. 1, 2000, ISSN 1616-6558 , pp. 97-119.
- ^ Belgian Directorate for Electoral Affairs
- ↑ a b Wilfried Swenden: “Learning Federalism - 2004 as a turning point in the development of Belgian federalism.” In: Yearbook of Federalism. Vol. 6, 2005, ISSN 1616-6558 , pp. 307-322.
- ↑ a b c Wilfried Swenden: "Belgian Federalism 2005: Live together separately or fall apart?" In: Yearbook of Federalism. Vol. 7, 2006, ISSN 1616-6558 , pp. 303-317.
- ↑ Judgment of the Court of Arbitration (PDF; 330 kB) of February 26, 2003
- ↑ Judgment of the Court of Arbitration (PDF; 296 kB) of May 26, 2003
- ↑ draft law (PDF; 213 kB) full text (Dutch and French)
- ↑ Archived copy ( Memento of the original from April 16, 2010 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.
- ↑ Wilfried Swenden, Maarten Theo Jans: “Will it stay or will it go? Federalism and the sustainability of Belgium ". In: West European Politics . Vol. 29, No. 5, 2006, ISSN 0140-2382 , pp. 877-894 ( online edition, access required ).
- ↑ Online edition of the daily Le Soir, June 14, 2007 (French)
- ^ State reform failed - government crisis in Belgium. Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung of July 16, 2008, p. 1f.
- ↑ Belgium again on the brink of a government crisis ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. . Luxembourg word of April 22, 2010.
- ↑ Historic agreement at the negotiating table: BHV is split , BRF online , September 15, 2011.
- ↑ "Historic" solution found for BHV ( page no longer available , search in web archives ) Info: The link was automatically marked as defective. Please check the link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. , Flandersinfo.be , 15 September 2011.
