In This Article
30-Second Summary
Headline Link: ‘Language Divide Tosses Belgium from Crisis to Crisis’
Background: Two irreconcilable sides to Belgium
Reference: Belgian culture and language
Opinion & Analysis: Belgians ‘don’t understand each other anymore’
Related Topic: Belgium beauty queen booed for inability to speak Dutch
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Yves Logghe/AP
Belgium Prime Minister Yves Leterme
Belgium Prime Minister Yves Leterme
Belgium Struggles Under Language Divide
July 15, 2008 09:01 AM
Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme seeks to end tensions between the Dutch-speaking Flemings and French-speaking Walloons.
30-Second Summary
Politics in Belgium have more than a partisan divide to overcome; they have a language barrier to deal with as well.
To solve the ongoing language divide, Prime Minister Yves Leterme has called for “parties to agree on a new balance of power between Belgium's 6.5 million Dutch speakers and 4 million Francophones,” the Associated Press reports.
In 1960, Belgium was divided into regions of separate languages: Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. Despite the clear divide, Brussels, the country’s capital, remained bilingual.
In 2007, tensions in Belgium came to a head when the June 10 elections produced no results. Both the Flemings and Walloons went without official government for months.
Despite conflict between the groups, “experts predict that the two regions wouldn't be able to manage alone. The Walloons are having children who will have to finance the Flemings' pensions in the coming years and most of the goods produced in Flanders are consumed in Wallonia,” explains Barbara Hans of Der Spiegel.
To solve the ongoing language divide, Prime Minister Yves Leterme has called for “parties to agree on a new balance of power between Belgium's 6.5 million Dutch speakers and 4 million Francophones,” the Associated Press reports.
In 1960, Belgium was divided into regions of separate languages: Dutch-speaking Flanders and French-speaking Wallonia. Despite the clear divide, Brussels, the country’s capital, remained bilingual.
In 2007, tensions in Belgium came to a head when the June 10 elections produced no results. Both the Flemings and Walloons went without official government for months.
Despite conflict between the groups, “experts predict that the two regions wouldn't be able to manage alone. The Walloons are having children who will have to finance the Flemings' pensions in the coming years and most of the goods produced in Flanders are consumed in Wallonia,” explains Barbara Hans of Der Spiegel.
Headline Link: ‘Language Divide Tosses Belgium from Crisis to Crisis’
Politics in Belgium are reaching a crucial moment as Prime Minister Yves Leterme has set a deadline to find a balance between French and Dutch speakers in Belgium. One cause for recent tension between speakers of each language is the refusal of French politicians to pass infrastructural improvements in Dutch-speaking parts of the country.
Source: USA Today
Background: Two irreconcilable sides to Belgium
Divisions in Belgian politics came to a head in 2007 when national elections on June 10 failed to produce a government. “Coalition talks descended into ugly squabbling between francophone Walloons and the Dutch-speaking Flemish,” reported The Daily Telegraph. According to the British paper, “In the end, widespread cynicism with all Belgian politicians, both Flemish and Walloon, may be Belgium's salvation.”
Source: The Daily Telegraph
In November 2007, journalist Barbara Hans examined the June 10 election and the lack of government that followed, explaining the differing opinions on dividing electoral districts to facilitate the elections. “The debate over the electoral district symbolizes what the two parts of the country are competing for: influence. From the outside it seems as if there are no Belgians at all, just Flemings and Walloons,” writes Hans.
Source: Der Spiegel
Reference: Belgian culture and language
The BBC profiles Belgium with an overview of the country’s history, politics, economics and society, including the linguistic affiliation of major Belgian leaders. For information on the languages spoken in Belgium, see Languages Across Europe: Belgium.
Source: The BBC
Bill Poser at the University of Pennsylvania examines the history of Belgian languages and the cultural stereotypes that define the country’s demographics. According to Poser, French and Dutch speakers “hate each other to the extent that the joke is that the only real ‘Belgians’ are the royal family and the Jews, everyone else identifying as a Fleming or a Walloon (Walloon being the dying Romance language now largely replaced by French). Some prefer the terms ‘Lemmings’ and ‘Baboons.’”
Source: The University of Pennsylvania
Opinion & Analysis: Belgians ‘don’t understand each other anymore’
Fabian Bauwens addresses some of the social and political tensions exacerbated by the Belgian language divide, writing, “Why can't Belgians get along with each other anymore? The truth is that we have grown apart over a long time and that we literally don't understand each other. French-speaking Belgians often choose not to learn the Dutch language of the majority…Dutch-speaking Belgians increasingly refuse to speak French out of frustration with the others' inability to speak Dutch, and younger generations don't see the point in learning the language of Dumas and Duras anymore.”
Source: The Johns Hopkins Newsletter
Related Topic: Belgium beauty queen booed for inability to speak Dutch
In 2007, French-speaking beauty queen Alizée Poulicek—the newly appointed Miss Belgium—was booed for her inability to speak Dutch. The incident highlighted “increasing Flemish demands that all Belgians in the public eye should speak the majority language,” according to The Times of London.
Source: The Times of London
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