If ever the mayor of Brussels and Belgium's interior minister needed to
work together, it's now. Instead, they are tearing strips off each
other. Why? Mark Hallam reports from Brussels.
Suicide bombs at the airport and on the underground,
apparent security shortcomings and then
far-right protesters being ushered out of the city center by police: The need for political unity between the city of Brussels and Belgium's government has never been clearer.
Perhaps unfortunately, this required Brussels Mayor Yvan
Mayeur, one of Belgium's most blunt French-speaking Socialists, to work
with Flemish nationalist pit bull Jan Jambon, the interior minister.
They represent the country's two largest parties in terms of seats - one
in the coalition, the other leading the national opposition after
decades in power. It's almost the Belgian equivalent of putting the
American democratic socialist Bernie Sanders and leaders of the
right-wing Tea Party in a room and ordering them to find common ground.
After Sunday's far-right protest, Mayeur accused Jambon's New Flemish
Alliance of sending the hooligans to Brussels - later telling
francophone TV that he had lost all confidence in the interior minister.
Jambon's office hit back, saying what had happened on Place de la
Bourse was Mayeur's responsibility, as Brussels' city mayor.
Another far-right demo, planned by a francophone group in Brussels for Saturday, has since been banned.
"With the extreme-right protests last Sunday, both Mr. Jambon and Yvan
Mayeur were partly responsible," Piertjan Desmet, spokesman for
Belgium's Groen (Green) party, told DW. "But, because of their lack of
cooperation, things got slightly out of hand - and now they are just
pointing fingers at each other."
PM can only watch
Prime Minister Charles Michel voiced the same opinion on Friday,
lamenting the "political games" being played at such a difficult time.
"I regret these polemics and will do everything to try to avoid them,"
Michel said.
While Walloon Charles Michel heads the government, his coalition is chock full of powerful Flemish parties
But the prime minister is unlikely to go any further than a public
reproach - and perhaps a sterner ticking-off in private. Despite holding
the top job in government, as leader of the coalition's only
francophone party his political base is smaller than that of either of
the feuding factions; his practical power is therefore limited.
Belgian parties, perhaps more so than the electorate at large, remain polarized between the country's two principal languages.
"Now, one of the problems in Belgium, and it's also one of the reasons
for the tensions, is that we have no major national parties," said Dave
Sinardet, politics professor at the Free University of Brussels. "We are
actually the only federation without federal parties of importance.
Even federal ministers in the end only have to be elected or re-elected
in one of the language communities. That, of course, creates a system
where you don't have politicians who are stimulated to pursue, let's
say, a broader Belgian federal interest."
Change in the wind?
The Groen party, led by 29-year-old Kristof Calvo, has started to rail against this status quo.
"What marks out the Groen party in Belgium is that we are the only ones
whose French and Flemish members work together," Desmet said.
"Structurally, I mean. We have the Flemish Socialists and French
Socialists, the Flemish and French Liberals, but only one Green faction
for the entire country. Our plea is for more cooperation across the
languages and less confrontation."
Calvo, not unlike Professor Sinardet, is among those who argue that
Belgium should consider a more centralized approach to its elections,
one of the platforms he put forward in a 2015 book whose title
translates to "F*** the Sideline."
"About 10 or 15 years ago, this idea was only discussed in some academic
circles. It was considered an unrealistic proposition," Sinardet told
DW. "But in the meantime it's evolved and become part of political
debate. The Greens and the Liberals on both sides have declared
themselves in favor, and also some figures in other parties. Although
certainly, there's still not the two-thirds majority you'd need to
introduce it."
Post-attack parliamentary review
So far, Sinardet said, the security shortcomings that have emerged since
March 22 do not concern Belgium's language barrier - but rather the
"lack of communication, lack of information-sharing and probably also to
some extent a lack of means - certainly for state security this is
probably the case."
Oliver Paasch, state premier for Belgium's oft-forgotten German-speaking
contingent in Eupen in the east, does not believe that the attacks will
stir up Belgium's language feud, pointing out that the various
anti-terror units are all federally structured, although "they did not
cooperate effectively."
"In the course of the investigations, for instance, we have learned that
these services work with different databases and that these databases
were not interlinked," Paasch said, also urging more investment in
troubled areas such as Molenbeek: "The gap between rich and poor is
greater in these city districts than anywhere else."
Paasch said having six separate local police services looking after
Brussels "is simply no longer acceptable," adding that the conflicts
between police forces have "very little to do with language" and more to
do with funding and occasional sloppiness.
Sinardet warned that even looking into issues such as funding for
security services in Belgium could turn into a political football.
"For instance, Flemish nationalists were never necessarily big fans of
Belgian state security - because this could also turn against them, or
at least against the more radical elements within the movement who
wanted to do away with the Belgian state," Sinardet said. "It's the same
for a number of left-wing parties, who traditionally also had a bit of a
negative feeling towards state security."
The silver lining could lie within Belgium's electorate, who seem
increasingly tired of the nationalist bickering and would prefer to vote
on such issues as financial policy, immigration and security.
"What I see, certainly among the population - and I'm glad about this -
is a big feeling of unity and a great desire for politicians to
cooperate and get this over and done with," Groen party spokesman Desmet
said. "The call for cooperation is now loud and clear."
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