A geographic, demographic and political insight into nowadays Flanders.

Geographical details

1. Antwerp
2. Limburg
3. East-Flanders
4. Flemish Brabant
5. West-Flanders

What does the word "Flanders" mean?

• the social community of the Flemings, which is,with more than 6 million people, the majority of the Belgian population;
• the territory of the Flemish Community, comprising the Dutch speaking Flemish Region and the bilingual Brussels Capital Region, which takes care of the political representation of the Dutch speakers in Belgium and which is authorised in personal matter;
• the territory of the unilingually Dutch Flemish Region, of which the Brussels Capital Region is not a part, it is especially authorised in economic matters, but has been absorbed by the Flemish Community, as a result of which there is only one Flemish government and one Flemish parliament;
• the geographic area which corresponds with the territory of the medieval Countship of Flanders: i.e. the current provinces of East- and West-Flanders, French-Flanders(^*) and Zeeuws-Flanders(^*).

Politics

Since the state reformation, Flanders has been a partitional state of Belgium, with its own government, its own parliament, its own budget and income and is in administrative terms usually referred to as the Flemish Community. The latter has authority in community matters as well as regional matters and is ruled by one parliament and one government, this in contrast to Wallonia, where those authorities are put into separate councils, namely the Walloon Regional Council and the council of the French community. The authorities of the Belgian federal government and those of the Flemish (and other) partitional governments are determined by democratic consultations between the different communities and they keep evolving. In Flanders, however, the community insists on more constitutional autonomy. Flanders wants to settle its own financial, administrative, local and intermediate matters. The powers which Flanders has now are described in the Belgian constitution and the Special Law about the Reformation of the Institutions.

Flanders only acquired its current autonomy after a long process of emancipation. In the Belgium of 1830 the Flemings had only limited political rights and their language, Dutch, was discriminated and even forbidden in public life, in favour of French. In the second half of the 19th century a Flemish Movement started. It only acquired any political influence after 1900, partly by bringing in the general, universal right to vote. The role of Dutch in Flanders was bit by bit legally recognised in jurisdiction, education, administration and politics. After that, it still took until the last quarter of the 20th century until the Flemings acquired equal rights. The fact that Flanders, from the 1960s onward, grew into one of the strongest economic regions in the world, and that Wallonia, with an outdated "smokestack" industry, is stuck in an economical crisis, has most probably played an important part in that.

In the state reformations of that period, autonomous regions and communities were planned by the Belgian judiciary powers. Flanders decided in 1980 to merge the Flemish Community and the Flemish Region. It has now one Flemish Parliament and one Flemish government. De MPs, elected in Brussels, however, cannot take part in votes about Flemish regional matters. The Flemish government resides in Brussels, just like the Belgian government (the Walloon government resides in Namur).

• Regarding the regional powers, the Flemish region has authority in its territory over 'territorial bound' matters such as economy, employment, roads, urbanising and the environment. For many of those powers, however, it has to share authority with the Belgian government. On top of that Flanders has very little financial income of its own. It is -just like it is with the authorities of the other partitional states- highly dependent on the Belgian treasury.
• The Flemish Community includes all inhabitants of the Flemish Region and the Dutch speaking inhabitants of the bilingual Brussels Capital Region. It has powers over language, culture, education and the so called 'person bound matters', welfare and health care.

Flanders does posess, in comparison with other partitional states in federal countries such as Canada, Switzerland, Germany and the US, less powers and less financial autonomy. Thus the national judiciary powers keep control over the complete social security system, where most other federal states have a shared control over those between the national and partitional governments. In other fields autonomy goes much further than it does in other federal states. As such, in Belgium, the partitional governments have the power to autono9mously sign treaties, while this can only be done under the supervision of and with authorisation of the federal government. Flanders also seems to have little autonomy concerning the factual choice of its governmental coalition. Thus far the major parties forced the same coalitions as the national government. All this changed in 2004, when the regional elections did not coincide with the federal elections anymore. Due to these small inaccuracies the Belgian state still shows unitary characteristics, and at the same time also many federal and even some confederal characteristics (such as the necessary double majority, needed to make changes to a special law).

Flemish Parliament

The Flemish Parliament is elected every 5 years. It comprises 124 Flemish representatives who are elected directly (most recent election: June 10th, 2007). It is the representation of the people of the Flemish Community and it has every legal authority in the Flemish region and for all institutions of the Flemish Community, such as all Dutch speaking schools (including those in Brussels), hence also for the Francophone schools in Flemish facility communities. It also appoints the ministers of the Flemish Government.

Flemish Government

List of the minister-presidents of Flanders:

• Gaston Geens, 1981-1992, CVP
• Luc Van den Brande, 1992-1999, CVP
• Patrick Dewael, 1999-2003, VLD
• Bart Somers, 2003-2004, VLD
• Yves Leterme, 2004-2007, CD&V
• Kris Peeters, 2007-present day, CD&V

Political parties

During most of the 20th century, politics in Flanders was -mainly under the 'unitary, Belgian rule'- dominated by the Christian, Socialist and Liberal parties (then CVP, BSP and PVV). (During the 60s and 70s those once unitary paries were split into separate Flemish, Francophone and some Germanophone parties). Those three were strongly tied to related trade unions and social organisations. We refer to those conglomerates as the 'pillars'. They also exist on the Francophone side. The pillars managed to put their mark on the political and social system in Flanders and Belgium during the past century. That led to a society in which careful social thinking has always played a major part.

Also in today's autonomous Flanders a lot of political decisions are preceded by a, sometimes, sometimes not binding consultation between social movements, trade unions, mutualities (kind of sick fund), employers' organisations and the authorities. In the previous century that led to a society with a free market, linked to strong social protection. A system that also created a high degree of prosperity for the vast majority of the Flemings. The sectarianism, however, also had some negative consequences. Political appointments in government services were common practice. That led to a slow administrative system which cost a lot of money and which did not always provide equally adequate services. Nowadays, sectarianism in Flanders has been strongly reduced. The Flemish administrative system usually gets very high marks in international studies. Political appointments have been strongly reduced.

On December 14th, 1954, also a hard line Flemish and pluralist party was fouded, the Volksunie (People's Union). This party sometimes managed to get into the government and even became a medium sized party. On October 13th, 2001, this party fell apart and became a left-liberal party (Spirit) and a nationalist wing (N-VA). Spirit made an alliance with the SP.A in 2002 and N-VA did the same in 2004 with the Christelijke Volkspartij (Christian Popular Party, CVP), at that time renamed as CD&V. Individual former Volksunie MPs also joined the liberal VLD and the CD&V.

In the 70s there was also the formation of one of the first green parties in Europe, Agalev (an anagram for "Anders GAan LEVen", "Start to live differently"). They even managed to get some MPs as the first green party. From 1999, after the dioxine crisis, until 2004 they were represented in the Flemish Government (and until 2003 in the federal government). The party paid a hefty electoral price for that crisis in the federal elections of 2003 and in the Flemish elections of 2004. On November 15th, 2003,Agalev took on a new name: Groen! (Green!).

At the end of the 70s, because of the disagreement with the Egmont Treaty by a number of Flemish nationalists, and because of the participation of the VU in a government with, among others, the radical francophone FDF, the right wing and nationalist Vlaams Blok (Flemish Block) was founded. This party grew constantly, partly because of their stances on immigrants, and after their huge progress during the 1991 elections, the other Flemish parties agreed not to make any coalition agreements with this party at any level (from national to council level, this was the so called 'cordon sanitaire'). In 2004 some of the non profit organisations surrounding the Vlaams Blok were taken to court because of racism. The appeal court of Ghent sentenced those organisations, after a judiciary circus, because of their alleged co-operation with a racist organisation. The party changed their name to Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) after this, but internally they maintained their principles. During the council elections in October 2006, the Vlaams Belang progressed in practically every city and gained votes everywhere. They did, however, suffer a symbolic defeat because of a small setback in Antwerp, where they are no longer the largest party.

On January 19th, 2007, a new party was founded by Ostender and former national judo coach Jean-Marie Dedecker, who was rejected by the VLD after internal struggles. The party, called "Lijst Dedecker (LDD) (List Dedecker)" also shows a right wing and Flemish reflex, eg. they advocate a complete freedom of speech and do not think highly of the Belgian state. Furthermore they strongly oppose the Turkish plans to join the European Union. The party got a stunning result in the 2007 elections.

Logos of the main Flemish parties (Alphabetical)

Vlaams Belang