Walloon Party Leader Threatening Flemish MPs

Didier Reynders, party leader of the Walloon Conservatives (MR), threatens Flemish Members of Parliament in an interview with Walloon public television RTBf and the magazine Le Vif/L'Express. In the same interview he demands that the Flemish winner of the elections Yves Leterme (CD&V) denounces his party's and region's interests.

Wednesday evening, Didier Reynders was invited for an interview organized by the Walloon public television station RTBf and the magazine Le Vif/L'Express on the occasion of the reopening of the political year. Asked for a comment on the ongoing political crisis in Belgium, and in particular the problems to conform the election constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde to the constitution, Didier Reynders said the following:

They [the Flemish Members of Parliament] do not always know they're putting a knife on their own throats while there's an explorer [i.e. Herman van Rompuy] trying to find a solution. I hope they'll have the wisdom to give him a chance.

He also qualified the behavior of the Flemish MPs as «suicidal».

It's unclear how conforming a constituency to the Belgian Constitution could be «suicidal» behavior. It seems to me that from a Flemish perspective, it looks more like a form of resurrection of Flemish authority over the whole Flemish territory than suicide. In fact, if the Flemish MPs don't split the constituency according to the regional borders, they continue to leave thousands of Flemings at the mercy of Walloon politicians who want to annex large parts of the Flemish Region.

In another part of the interview, Didier Reynders, who has openly solicited for the job of Prime Minister, demands Yves Leterme, the clear winner of the elections by gaining about 800,000 votes in Flanders, to take distance from his own party, the Flemish Christian-democrat CD&V, and the Flemish people. If Yves Leterme fails to do so, he would not be acceptable as the new Prime Minister to the Walloons, Didier Reynders implied. However, if that's true, it would be interesting to know whether also Didier Reynders is prepared to denounce own party and his own people to become the next Prime Minister of Belgium. Maybe giving up all your principles is a condition to which only Flemish politicians must adhere if they want to play a significant role in a Belgian federal government, and certainly if they want to lead it. Of course, there are more than enough examples of Flemish politicians who did exactly that.