The Belgians are divided between two main groups, the Walloons ,
French-speakers who account for around forty percent of the population,
and the Flemish , or Dutch speakers, who form about sixty percent, out
of a total population of some ten million.
The Flemish-French language divide has troubled the country for decades,
its historical significance rooted in deep class and economic divisions.
Prosperity has shifted back and forth between the two communities over
the centuries: in medieval times Flanders grew rich on its textile trade;
later Wallonia developed mining and steel industries. However,
Francophones have always dominated the aristocracy, and, since the
Middle Ages, the middle classes as well. The setting-up of the Belgian
state in 1830 crystallized this antagonism, with the final arrangements
favouring the French-speakers. French became the official language,
Flemish was banned in schools (the Belgian Civil Code was only
translated into Flemish in 1961), and the industries of Wallonia were
regarded as pre-eminent. Nowadays, however, Flanders is the industrial
powerhouse of Belgium, and the heavy industries of Wallonia are in
decline, an economic change of fortunes which has made the Flemish-speakers
more assertive in their demands for linguistic and cultural parity.
However, Flemish "parity" is often perceived as "domination" by Walloons.
In recognition of the differences, the Language Frontier between the two
groups - effectively cutting the country in half, west to east - was
drawn in 1962. This did not, however, improve relations and, in 1980,
the constitution was redrawn on a federal basis, with three separate
communities - the Flemish North, the Walloon South and the German-speaking
east around the towns of Eupen and Malmédy - responsible for their own
cultural and social affairs and education. At the same time, Belgium was
simultaneously divided into three regions - the Flemish North, the
Walloon South and Brussels (which is officially bilingual, although a
majority of its population is French-speaking), with each regional
authority dealing with matters like economic development, the
environment and employment.
Although the niceties of this partition have calmed troubled waters, in
bilingual Brussels and at national government level the division between
Flemish and French speakers still influences many aspects of working and
social life. Schools, political parties, literature and culture are all
segregated along linguistic lines leading to a set of complex
regulations which can verge on the absurd. Government press conferences,
for example, must have questions and answers repeated in both languages.
Across Belgium as a whole, bitterness about the economy, unemployment
and the government smolders within (or seeks an outlet through) the
framework of this linguistic division, and individual neighbourhoods can
be paralyzed by language disputes. The communities of Fourons/Voeren,
for instance, a largely French-speaking collection of villages in
Flemish Limburg, almost brought down the government in the mid-Eighties
when the Francophone mayor, Jose Happart, refused to take the Flemish
language exam required of all Limburg officials. Dismissed, he stood
again and was re-elected, prompting the prime minister at the time,
Wilfred Martens, to offer his own resignation. The Fourons affair was
symptomatic of the obstinacy that besets the country to this day. Jose
Happart could probably have passed the exam easily - indeed rumour has
it that he is fluent in Flemish - but he simply chose not to submit,
giving succour to the political extremists on both sides - namely the
Vlaams Blok on the Flemish side, and, for the French-speakers, the Front
des Francophones (FDF).
The casual visitor to Belgium will rarely get a sniff of these bilingual
tensions. Although it's probably better to speak English rather than
Flemish or French in the "wrong" part of Belgium, if you make a mistake
the worst you'll get is a look of glazed indifference
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