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.

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Surreal Belgium: Country in a Deep Existential Crisis, King Goes on a Holiday

Believe it or not: Belgium has been in a crisis for about two months now, a crisis that topped last week-end when King Albert II himself had to intermediate between the parties and that became even worse last night after a difficult meeting that lasted until 4.30 AM. In the mean time, newspapers and websites are organizing polls about whether Flanders should become independent or even join the Netherlands. So where do you think the King is while all this is happening? In his palace in Laken, listening to the radio every hour or checking the news bulletins on the television? Nope, he's having a vacation in the South of France. Ceci n'est pas un roi…

So what is it a Belgian king is supposed to fill his time with? From time to time, he has to make a speech on the radio and television, watch a military parade, nominate peers, administer the oath of a federal Minister, produce some off-spring, sign some laws, and, well, that's about it. And yes, play the post-electoral theater piece every four years consisting of appointing, interviewing and discharging those royal negotiators that are supposed to form a new government.

Considering all this, one would think that while Belgium is going through one of the worst existential crises of the last decades, the King would stay in the capital making sure he's available every single hour of the day in case the negotiator needs some assistance. After all, if Belgium would break up, he would be the first to lose his job. Or more correctly: he would be retired, and his eldest son and Crown Prince Philippe would be the one taking the real hit. But if you look at his behavior of the last days, it seems he doesn't really care. Where was he, even though everybody in Belgium knew since this morning that chances were very high that Yves Leterme, the current/former negotiator, would be forced or willing to step down some time in the afternoon or evening? In the South of France! Apparently, nobody had even bothered to warn him that maybe it would be a good idea to return to Belgium, just in case, instead of drinking cocktails in the sun somewhere near a swimming-pool. Talk about getting your priorities right.

The result of all this: Yves Leterme had to wait for several hours until the King finally decided the time was right to come back from the South of France and accept his resignation. Not only did the King show to everybody that he has absolutely no interest in what's supposed to be his full-time job, he even managed to block the process of forming a new federal government in Belgium for several hours. If a president would do something like that, he would probably have to resign too.

Some say a king is much cheaper than having a president. If that's true, Belgium certainly got what it paid for…

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