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Belgium: Language and class oppositions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  12 July 2017

André Philippart
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Extract

The elections which were held on 23 May 1965 will doubtless prove to be a watershed in Belgian politics, as were those of 14 October 1894, in which universal suffrage, tempered by the use of the plural vote, was first put into practice, and those of 16 November 1919 in which universal suffrage, with the exception of most women, was first fully introduced.

Type
Research Article
Information
Government and Opposition , Volume 2 , Issue 1 , October 1966 , pp. 63 - 81
Copyright
Copyright © Government and Opposition Ltd 1967

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References

1 Without regular surveys of the votes cast by the same voters m successive ballots, it is scientifically impossible to determine the motives behind the changes in the behaviour of the Belgian voters: reasoning, mood, abandonment of an ideology, disapproval of a particular policy. Our guess is, however, that certain political factors linked to new needs, influenced the voters in favour of those political parties which were most successful in putting forward new or refurbished programmes.

2 Allen Potter: ‘British Pressure-Groups’, Parliamentary Affairs, June 19565 p. 419; Meynaud, Jean: Les groupes depression en France, Cahier No. 95 de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris, 1958, p. 38 Google Scholar.

3 See above all the work of the Institut belge de science politique on Les aspects de la société belge, Ie série, N0. 5, Brussels, 1958 , 332 Google Scholar pages.

4 It was, I think, Serge Hurtig who, at the Round Table Conference in Grenoble in September 1965 maintained that in France today the citizens have passed from contestation to opposition, but that they lack the support of some oppositions which would enable them to crystallize all the oppositions.

5 See, on this subject, the publication of the CRISP (Centre (belge) de recherche et d’information socio-politiques): La décision politique en Belgique, Cahier N0.138 de la Fondation nationale des sciences politiques, Paris, 1965 Google Scholar.

Among the most important electoral problems from 1961 to 1965, fuel and power, sickness and disablement pensions, taxation, public finances, and the raising of the standard of living must be singled out.

6 The 176the seat was held ex officio by Prince Albert, wno was nominated for life at the age of 18. The numbers of elected and designated Senators rose, after the 1965 elections) to 178, because of the increase in the number of electors, which influences the designation of provincial and co-opted senators.

7 The Confédération des syndicats chrétiens, in its report presented to the 23rd congress (27-29 December 1964) gave a figure of 812,257 members for the year

8 According to the Institut national de statistique.

9 When the government was formed on 25 April 1961, the Flemish held 12 mini stries as against 8 for the French-speaking community. Parliamentary support for this government was divided according to the electoral districts, unofficially, in the Chamber of Representatives, into:

- 100 Flemish-speaking representatives, of whom 64 were Social Christians and among these 5 represented Brussels; and 36 Socialists, 4 of whom represented Brussels;

- 80 French-speaking representatives, of whom 32 were Social Christians, 5 representing Brussels; and 48 Socialists, of whom 9 represented Brussels;

In the Senate the situation was almost the same.

10 On this subject, see the remarkable article by Ivo Rens in Res Publica, the journal published by the Institut belge de Science politique: ‘Les garanties parlementaires contre la minorisation et la révision constitutionnelle en Belgique’, Res Publica, Vol. VII, 1965, No. 3, pp. 189–221 Google Scholar.

11 The most penetrating analysis is by Ivo Rens, in the article quoted above: ‘Besides, the word “minorization” which constantly recurs in contemporary Belgian political jargon conjures up less a state of affairs than a state of mind. It shows only too well the growth of regionalist awareness which first the north and then the south has undergone. “Minorization” can be defined, it seems, as a collective complex of frustration, or of grievances, either economic, social, cultural or linguistic not to mention purely nationalistic, which serve as an alibi for demonstrations of mistrust, isolation or aggressiveness. One cannot over-emphasize the psychological aspect of the phenomenon. Its present intensity derives less from the realization of the French-speaking Walloons that they are numerically inferior than from their revolt against the hypothetical consequences of this fact.’

12 The most important at the 1965 elections were: the Front Wallon (1 elected) -Hainaut; the Parti Wallon des travailleurs (i elected) – Liège; The Front démocratique Wallon (none elected); the Union de la gauche socialiste, which thanks to its alliance with the Communist Party, won its first seat in Brussels.

13 The law was voted (second reading) in the Chamber of Representatives on 31 October 1962, by a Flemish majority against the French-speaking minority: Voting 198; yes: 130 out of which 101 Flemish; no: 56 out of which 53 Walloons; Absent 14; Abstentions: 12

14 See especially Val Lorwin’s most valuable study on Belgium in Dahl, Robert A. (Ed.): Political Oppositions in Western Democracies, New Haven and London, 1966, pp. 147-87.Google Scholar

15 Grégoire, M.: ‘La campagne électorale de mai 1965’, Editorial, Res Publica, 1966, No. 1, p. 6 Google Scholar.

16 Jean Fourastié’s Les 40,000 heures, Paris, 1963.