Acht Vlaamse gemeenten weigeren om Europese verkiezingen te organiseren (en)
The mayors of eight Flemish municipalities in western Belgium have announced that they will not organise EU elections, in protest over the mapping of the electoral constituency, which also includes French-speaking municipalities in Brussels.
The municipalities of Dilbeek, Gooik, Lennik, Londerzeel, Meise, Overijse, Roosdaal and Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, with a total population of 160,000, are located west of Brussels and part of Flemish Brabant, with very few French-speaking inhabitants. At present, they are part of the electoral district of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde.
"We will warn the other 21 municipalities of our decision," the mayor of Gooik said.
In the legislative 2007 elections, the same municipalities refused to set up electoral lists and organise polling stations, a task which was ultimately taken over by the governor of Flemish Brabant.
The problem of the current set-up is that French-speaking residents of the Halle-Vilvoorde can vote for French-speaking candidates from Brussels, but Flemish-speaking residents can't vote for Flemish candidates outside the Halle-Vilvoorde district.
In 2003, a week after the election, the Constitutional Court ruled that the definition of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district for national and European elections is a violation of the non-discrimination principle between Belgians.
However, it left open the question on how to solve the problem and it did not demand a split. Also, the court declared the results of the 2003 elections valid, to avoid having to re-run the elections.
Former Belgian Prime Minister Yves Leterme last year proposed splitting the electoral district into two – the Flemish Halle-Vilvoorde on one side and the mixed Flemish-French-speaking Brussels part on the other, but the move was fiercely opposed by the French-speaking community.
Flemish demands for the area to be split are met with equally strong demands by the Francophone community to set up a "buffer-zone" of six special municipalities added to Brussels proper - an idea again fiercely opposed by the Flemish.
Press Articles
-
-