Belgické regionální a komunitární volby 13. června 2004: Země na cestě k rozpadu?
The Belgian June 2004 Regional and Community Elections: a Country Heading Towards a Break-up?

Summary/Abstract: Since the June 2004 Belgian regional and community eleclions, the country has been subjected to several political problems deriving from the unexpecled elecloral results. These elections have been the first ones to see the federale bodies and the federal ones elecled not in a simultaneous way. This reform was supposed to permit to mirror the country's diversity and to support the "federal principle". Before the scrutiny, many predicted the unprecedented results of the Flemish extreme right and nationalist party, Vlaams Blok. lf these fears were partially confirmed (the Vlaams Blok becoming the first Flemish party in Brussels, the second one in the Flemish region but not being able to bring the Brussels institutions to a complele standstill as initially feared), the main surprise following the elections consisted in the creation of different governing coalitions in each of the federate bodies, these coalition also diverging from the one at the federal level established only one year before, in 2003. This situation could have perhaps remained non problemalic if the Belgian political system had not been subjected, throughout the last few years, to several evolutions that tend to reduce the ability of the Belgian political actors to reach compromises. Compromise being a tradition in Belgium and one of the main condition to a functioning of Belgian political system. Amongst these unsatisfying evolutions: the disappearance of a Belgian political elite supporting the country's unity and its progressive replacement by a young regional elite, only willing to defend regional interests, the disappearance of Belgian-wide political parties, the tendency of the Flemish parlies, because of the growing successes of Ihe Vlaams Blok and because of the association of some of them with smaller nationalistically oriented parties, to readjust their political program towards a more nationalistic orientation, the apparition of growing regional identities. This situation when different coalitions are created and, simultaneously, parties (and citizens) seem to be less and less able (and willing) to negotiate and reach an agreement together, tends to bring the whole syslem to a crisis situation. Therefore, we tend to considerate the June 2004 elections as a breaking point (several affairs such as, for example, the DHL society issue seem to confirm this assessment) for the Belgian political system and ask ourselves the question: are Belgium's polilical parties and citizens ready for a necessary new reflection concerning the future of the State or is the country slowly heading towards a break-up?

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