Belgium: Beginning of the end?

Read few comments by Bernard Fournier, Researcher, Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Guest Lecturer, Haute école de la province de Liège

Personally, I don’t think it is not the beginning of the end of Belgium, frankly. However, if the Francophones don’t create an adequate “counter-power”, the future could be difficult. But we are not there yet.

The problem is simple: right now, the Francophones cannot oppose anything to the Flemish requests for more and more power. This is what I mean by “counter-power”.

For me, the key would be to create an alliance between Francophones and non-regionalist Flemish for the defense of a real federal government. It is the problem at the moment. It seems that no one see the importance of the creation of some sort of strong federal institutions. A country could be highly decentralised, but there is a limit: those limits need to be drawn, and this cannot be done only by Francophones.

If this is not change for the next round of negotiations, it would be a bit problem for the future.