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The Flemish municipalities of Hal and Affligem in the Brussels area have banned the display of French-language election posters during the campaign for the 7 June European and regional elections in Belgium, signalling that the political crisis in the region is far from over.
Belgium's political institutions are complex, with most of the political power organised around the need to represent the main cultural communities. Consecutive revisions of the constitution (in 1970, 1980, 1988 and 1993) established a unique federal state with political power segregated into three levels – the federal government, the three language communities (Flemish, French and German) and the three regions (Flanders, Wallonia and the Brussels-Capital Region).
A renewed effort to reform the constitution and re-balance power is currently underway.
On 13 and 14 May 2008, the Council of Europe Congress of Local and Regional Authorities sent a fact-finding mission to Belgium to look into the situation following the failure of the Flemish interior minister to appoint three mayors in municipalities in the Flemish region (EurActiv 15/05/08).
On 31 October, the draft resolution was adopted unanimously by the Institutional Committee of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe (EurActiv 04/11/08). The decision opened a monitoring procedure on the application of the European Charter of Local Self-Government in Belgium.
Then, in an unequivocal move, the Council of Europe's Congress of Local Authorities voted on 2 December to impose a general monitoring of local democracy in Belgium (EurActiv 03/12/09). In a further development, three French-speaking mayors who were prevented by Flemish authorities from taking up their duties in the Brussels surrounding area following their election in 2006 were encouraged to take the issue to court (EurActiv 10/04/09).
In Halle, a Flemish municipality 20km south-east of Brussels, the local authorities have decided that only Dutch-speaking parties can display their posters on the electoral billboard space.
In Affligem, a municipality also situated in the Flemish Brabant, 20km west-north-west of Brussels, the authorities decided to cover posters in French with white paper.
Belgian law requires municipalities to provide political parties with billboard space to display their posters in the month preceding the elections.
Nevertheless, the municipalities of Merchtem, Beersel, Kapelle-op-den-Bos, Machelen, Ternat, Meise and Grimbergen, which are all in the Brussels area, said they would not provide billboard space, in order to "eliminate" French-language posters from the urban landscape.
Meanwhile, the authorities of Steenokkerzeel, Ternat and Grimbergen are distributing stickers to be displayed on mailboxes, requesting that "only Dutch flyers are accepted".
The French-speaking centrist party CDH condemned what it called "this new blow on the basic rights of the French-speaking population in [Brussels] periphery".
Answering a question asked in the Flemish parliament, Flemish Interior Minister Marino Keulen explained that displaying posters was free and not governed by linguistic legislation.
Brussels is a majority French-speaking city, but its periphery is Flemish. The 100,000 or so French speakers who live there enjoy special privileges, like being able to cast their ballot in the bi-lingual electoral district of Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde (BHV).
But Dutch-speaking parties oppose this privilege and have called for the district to be split into separate Brussels proper and Flemish municipalities. In a sign of protest against the bilingual electoral district, several Dutch-speaking municipalities have decided to boycott the EU elections (EurActiv 10/02/09). This decision could end up in court unless the Belgian government finds a solution, European Commission sources have said.
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