The Council of Europe, the oldest European organisation with 47 member states including Russia, yesterday (9 April) encouraged the three Belgian mayors to take the matter to court.
Michel Guégan, a Frenchman who monitors local democracy issues in Belgium for the Council of Europe’s Congress of Local and Regional Authorities, has accused Flemish authorities of "impeding democracy".
"I am deeply concerned by the intransigence of Flemish Minister of Home Affairs Marino Keulen in the case of three non-appointed burgomasters," Guégan said in a statement published on the Council of Europe’s website.
The condemnation came after Flemish minister reiterated his refusal to appoint the burgomasters of Crainhem, Wezembeek-Oppem and Linkebeek, following a new Council of Europe request on 1 April.
The three communes are geographically situated in Flanders but are mainly populated with French-speaking citizens. At the 2006 local elections, each of them won with a large majority.
But the Flemish Government considers their election flawed because the candidates sent electoral convocations in French, which is against Belgian law.
Keulen himself did not attend the December session in Strasbourg for legal reasons. As his representative Fons Borginon explained, Keulen is of the view that the Council of Europe is not the place to discuss interpretations of Belgian legislation.
"Why not postpone the debate until the legal case is settled?," asked Borginon on that occasion. He added that by obliging Keulen to appoint the three mayors, the Council of Europe would oblige him to act illegally.
However Guégan says the European Charter of Local Self-Government overrules Belgian law. "Belgium signed and ratified [the charter], this text takes precedence in this country over its national legislation,” he stressed.
"The expression of the people's will during elections is the very essence of democracy. Impeding elected representatives from fulfilling their duties, by denying them a formal appointment, makes this electoral exercise empty of all meaning, and this in violation of the Charter of Local Self-Government," Guégan states.
"The Flemish authorities […] have not taken into consideration the Congress' recommendation. By acting this way, they have deliberately reached a political impasse. The Congress will examine this matter again during its monitoring mission on the situation of local democracy in Belgium after the regional and European elections in June," Guégan concludes.
Up until now, the Council of Europe has taken the view that burgomaster’s controversy is a political case, on the background of an ongoing linguistic feud in Belgium. Flemish authorities, for their part, have always insisted that the controversy is of a legal nature.
