Breaking up is hard to do

So Belgium finally has a new government. 89 of the 150 deputies of the Lower House gave the first government of Mr. Elio di Rupo their support in the first confidence vote today.

But do not rush into hasty conclusions. The 541 days that were needed to negotiate this government are surely an excellent argument to say that Belgium is on the brink of collapse. But they show at least as much a strong will to survive. Why otherwise would a majority of politicians go at such extreme lengths to keep the country afloat?

What happened? There were only two winners of the parliamentary elections of June the 13th 2010: the centre-right Flemish nationalists (NVA) of Bart De Wever and the centre-left French-speaking socialists (PS) of Elio di Rupo. The former all of a sudden became the biggest group in parliament, with 27 of the 150 seats, whereas they had only 5 in the previous assembly. The latter, the PS, obtained 26 seats. In an electoral landscape that is fragmented along language-lines, both were now by far the largest party in their community.

The Flemish nationalists advocate an independent Flanders, but only in the long run. Like in Scotland and Catalonia (and before in Quebec) a large – and growing - part of public opinion in Flanders is ready to embrace more autonomy if not independence, but only on the condition that the risks of the separation-process can be defined and are clearly smaller than the possible (and still to prove) benefits. That is a rather high threshold in a democracy.The French-speaking socialists of Belgium have for a long time been the most stubborn conservative socialists on the continent, although Mr. di Rupo tried to move his party slowly towards to the centre.

So in the summer of 2010 there was genuine hope that with only one real leader left at each side of the language-line inside Belgium, both together would compromise on a new design for the country:  a thorough process of decentralisation, but spread long enough over time to give the French-speaking parts of Belgium – Brussels and Wallony - years to adapt to fiscal responsibility.

It did not happen. The leadership of both parties met in secret during a weekend July 2010 in a manor outside Brussels near the language-line, just to conclude that their differences remained unbridgeable. The PS, and in fact all French-speaking parties, were not ready to accept radical devolution. De Wever, the leader of the Flemish nationalist, then lost his interest – that had anyway been limited from the beginning – in taking command as largest party to save Belgium, a state most of his followers despise.

What followed was almost a year of shadow boxing, whereby di Rupo – who contrary to his Flemish counterpart was eager to take the command and become prime minister – finally succeeded in luring the three traditional parties in Flanders (Christian democrats, liberals and socialists, who all had lost in the elections) in negotiations without the nationalists. He put a tempting proposal on the table early in July 2011. What happened then is still in dispute: the three traditionals claim they agreed with De Wever to say ‘yes, but’ - what the latter denies -, but that the leader of the NVA then went on tv with a radical no.

After a thunderous speech from king Albert on National Day (July 21) and three weeks of holiday di Rupo finally succeeded in making agreements. First, on the 15th of September, on the thorny issue of the institutional framework for the largest and only bilingual electoral district of the country: Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde. Then on all pending institutional questions (October), and on the huge budget cuts that were needed (November).

The last words of the 177 pages government-agreement were written on the 1st of December. In the end it is not a new design for the country, but a classic Belgian compromise: almost unreadable, with no grand visions and no great leaps forward, but full of step-by-step reforms and a sense of pragmatism that is never going to arouse enthusiasm among the voters. The process of devolution will get a new twist, the sixth one since it started 40 years ago, but do not expect more transparent or lighter structures.

The new government, a six-party coalition of the three traditional parties of both communities, was sworn in on Tuesday, 541 days after the elections. Mr. di Rupo, the 60-year old new prime minister, is learning bit by bit to speak Dutch, but there is still a lot of criticism in Flanders on that point. 

Is Belgium saved? Again: do not rush into hasty conclusions. Much depends on the further evolutions inside the EU – especially the relation between Germany and France, or in general the southern and the Nordic countries – and on the internal economic balance of Belgium. For decades Flanders and French-speaking Belgium have been drifting apart, as the former had a fast growing economy and the latter suffered from a prolonged slump after the decay of coal and steel industries. But there are indications that the south is finally picking up, whereas Flanders, in the north, seems to run out of steam. This could of course also influence the relation between both communities and their respective electoral behaviour, which has been different since almost a century.

Mr. De Wever, now the leader of the opposition, is biding his time. He can hope do to still better in the elections next time (2014), after which he will necessarily have to push through his program of economic reform and radical devolution, maybe up to the point where French-speaking Belgium will no longer accept to negotiate. The (notoriously unreliable) polls in Belgium seem to give him right, at least for the moment.

(This article was published in a shorter version in The Scotsman on Thursday the 8th of December)

Day 541, at last

Belgium has at last a new government, after 541 days of negotiations since the parliamentary elections of the 13th of June 2010.

It is a coalition of six parties: French-speaking socialists (PS, 26 seats of the 150 in the Lower house), French-speaking liberals (MR, 18 seats), Flemish christian democrats (CD&V, 17), Flemish socialists (SP.A, 13), Flemish liberals (OpenVDL, 13) and French-speaking christian democrats (CDH, 9). Together they have  a large majority of 96 seats. There is some critic in Flanders that the three Flemish parties taken together fall short (43 seats) of the majority of the Flemish seats (88) in the Lower House, although this is not a legal obligation.

The new prime minister is Elio di Rupo, the mayor of the city of Mons in Hainaut province near the French border, and since 1999 the president of the PS. He is the son of an Italian immigrant from the Abbruzzi mountains an was already deputy prime minister between 1994 and 1999. He was a member of the EP between 1989 and 1991 before he started his carreer in national Belgian politics. Mr. di Rupo is 60 and is learning to speak Dutch, but there is criticism in Flanders on his poor command of that language. He is the first prime minister from the French-speaking parties of the country since 1974, and the first socialist in that function since then.

Mr. di Rupo succeeded where others failed in forming a government. The breakthrough came on September the 15th when he reached an agreement on the thorny issue of the status of the bilingual electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde. After that he achieved a global institutional agreement in october and an agreement on budgetary cuts in 2012 for an amount of the equivalent of 3 % of  gdp.

Yesterday the new cabinet was formed, again after night long negotiations that started at 5.30 pm on Sunday afternoon and lasted 24 hours without interruption. There are 13 ministers and 6 underministers. Most ministers are the same personalities as in the previous government, but generally on different posts. No MEP will enter the new government.

 

The Flemish nationalists are now the main opposition. In French-speaking Belgium the greens are the only opposition, but they are ready to give the government the needed two thirds majority to vote the institutional agreement.

 

It is still to early to say anything reasonable about the stability of this new government, although most observers agree that the bad opinion polls of last weekend should strengthen the will to remain together some time.

 

 

YES, a new government

Negotiators for a new Belgian government have finally achieved a definite agreement for a new government. It took 535 days to get that far, a world- and probably intergalactic-record. The new cabinet could take up its task next Monday, the 5th of December, day 540 after the elections of the 13th of June 2010.
The message was sent out shortly after 9 pm on Wednesday evening: the six negotiating parties (liberals, socialists and christian democrats of both communities of Belgium) around 'formateur' Elio di Rupo had agreed on a text of 185 pages (another record), the agreement that will command the actions of the next federal government.

Reactions on the final agreement were mitigated. There was much relief that finally there will be again a government in full. But there was much confusion and already some angry reactions about the budget cuts. 

The negotiators met today again to do the second lecture. They were expected to finish this evening. At that time a day of union protests will start against the measures the negotiators adopted last weekend about cuts for an amount of 11,3 bn € in the budget of 2012 and about reforms of the pension and unemployment system.
In the weekend party congresses will vote on the agreement, so that from sunday evening onwards di Rupo can start with the composition of his first government. Somewhere Monday the new ministers will go to the Royal Palace in Laken to swear their oath in front of King Albert.

The absolute world record of 540 days to form a government (the previous one was in the hands of Iraq with some 280 days) is prove that Belgium has become so divided that it is extremely difficult to govern it, especially in difficult times all over Europe.  But it is also true that at the end a majority of politicians was found to go at extreme length (540 days) to keep that country, if not alive, at least afloat.