Politieke steun voor ‘meer België’ groeit: “Na zes staatshervormingen blijkt dat de regio’s het zeker niet altijd beter doen”
Politieke steun voor ‘meer België’ groeit: “Na zes staatshervormingen blijkt dat de regio’s het zeker niet altijd beter doen”
8 comments
Shouldn’t be very surprising given that most constitutional reforms came out of an institutional tug-o-war from both sides of the country, without much vision or foresight towards the future. Moreso a “what can I get out of it” from the Regions and Communities than a focus on what’s best and improves the lives of Belgian citizens, regardless of which Region or Community they inhabit.
When the façade of “wat we zelf doen, doen we beter” has been dropping more and more year after year, especially after COVID, this constatation shouldn’t surprise anyone anymore.
On a poll done on politicians not on voters. Which is a bit putting the cart before the horse but fine.
People tend to forget where we are coming from. A pure unitary state did not work which is why we started to devolve powers in the first place. The years of *belgique à la papa* and waffle iron politics were not as nice as they seem now and that was when the state still had a higher capacity to spend than today.
This is a really difficult discusion. On one hand we have to many gouvernements, on the other hand the Belgian federal gouvernement is the most incompetent of them all.
> Steeds meer parlementsleden van steeds meer partijen zouden bij een volgende staatshervorming de voorkeur geven aan meer bevoegdheden voor de federale staat. **De evolutie zet zich het sterkst door bij alle Franstalige partijen (behalve PS), maar ook bij de Vlaamse Open Vld, Vooruit en Groen.**
lol
The regions and communities are ill-defined and pointless. It is a massive waste of money and a herculean bureaucracy to have the state structure we currently have, your average joe knows this and even politicians had to face this reality after the pandemic and the current energy crisis. If you are against moving competences to the Belgian government because you believe they should be handled locally, realize that the original Belgian state already gave – to a very high degree – autonomy to provinces and municipalities. A huge part of these local autonomies have in recent years been usurped by the regions and communities, which has led to the privatization of the public sector, decrease in education and healthcare quality and large frustrations for municipalities who have seen their budgets shrink and completed semi-forced fusions.
Take a look at the province of Limburg, which used to have the competence to partially subside education and culture. The Flemish government/Dutch-speaking community never saw interest in creating a university in Limburg, so it was the province and the municipalities that got together and funded it. Something like this is not possible anymore, as the Flemish government took those competences. Similarly, Limburgish language and Limburgish culture initiatives used to receive funding from the province, now that it is a competence of the Flemish government all this funding has been blocked, leading to a complete black out of the culture industry in Limburg. Zero projects were subsidized in 2020-2022. I can go on all day with how local competences are actually damaged because of these state reforms: from how public transport in Limburg is severely underfunded per capita to how municipality budgets are kept artbitrarily low because they are at the discretion of the Flemish government (before federalization they were per capita).
If we let these state reforms keep running the way they do, we will end up with an ever-increasing complex state structure where all provinces and municipalities are eroded to these 6 complex, intertwining governments where less gets done while we pay the bill. The only ones profiting from this are nationalists who one day hope to see Belgium split and politicians who keep adding competences to their bottom line.
Never got the Flemish nationalists, there’s only one nation that unites so much geographical and cultural diversity Belgium, what they hate is the Beauty of our Beloved country as whole. From the high-tech industry of Flanders to the superb agricultural produce of Wallonia over the rich and diverse history of Brussels. We really have it all… we should reunite abandon the geographical language barrier, language lives, don’t draw lines. Don’t cut the country into multiple governments. It’s absurd for a country that small.
And while you are at it, finally merge the region and communes of Brussels. Belgium deserves a functioning capital.
serious? According the latest poll, 47% of the Flemish people would vote for separatist parties (N-VA + VB)
They’re not all for Flemish independance but they would not cry if Belgium divides.