Belgium arrives at political crossroads

Date: 25/04/1996

By Jean-Paul Marthoz

IN early April, the verdict of the Cour de Cassation in the Inusop scandal condemning former Vice-Premier Guy Coëme and half a dozen members of the French-speaking Socialist Establishment had the effect of an electric shock on the Belgian political world.

For a few days, too, it was as if ordinary members of the public had only just realised the true importance of the case, as heady discussions raged in cafés and on commuter trains as well as in newspaper guest columns and editorials.

These spanned the broad spectrum of opinion from cold acceptance of the verdict to impassioned pleas for mercy. Was the justice too harsh? Was Coëme the scapegoat for past sins of the whole political class? Should he resign from his seat in the House of Representatives having been deprived of his civil and political rights for five years?

A few days later, Coëme handed in his resignation. “It is an illusion to think that by agreeing to leave their respective assemblies,” wrote La Libre Belgique, “both Mr Coëme and Hermanus, martyrs of the general interest, have made themselves greater. They have just avoided being devalued a little bit more.”

At first glance, it may seem that the Inusop verdict and Coëme's resignation closed a chapter on the issue of political corruption and influence-peddling that has been racking Belgium for many months and which led to the resignation last autumn of NATO Secretary-General and leading Flemish Socialist Willy Claes.

But the issue is, in fact, still alive, and the former mayor of Waremme will need a lot of stamina to cope with the impending hardships. Indeed, in the coming months, Coëme will have to face a trial for his alleged role in the Agusta and Dassault kickback cases, two arms contracts which were negotiated when he was defence minister.

In the last six months, Belgium has moved forward at the speed of a keep-fit enthusiast pedalling on a gym bike.

Most of the issues that we have covered in this column have found no real solution.

The teachers' strike in the French-speaking community has gone on for many weeks without really threatening the ruling coalition.

The tentative agreement that was reached in mid-April, in the midst of the Easter holiday, did not seem to be more than a truce in a festering conflict.

Pressed by impatient parents, most teachers seemed resigned to going back to their schools after a bitter dispute where bread-and-butter issues overshadowed lofty discussions on the future of education.

The same could be said of the labour disputes in other sectors, such as those which have afflicted the national air carrier Sabena and the rail company.

There has, however, been a breakthrough on the economic front. True to his reputation as a political bulldozer, Prime Minister Jean-Luc Dehaene bargained his way to an agreement with the trade unions and employers at Val Duchesse.

But this achievement was only a partial success. Warned by a recent International Monetary Fund report that it would not be able to reach the Maastricht deficit criteria, Belgium has again been made aware of its own limitations: the current ruling coalition government is constrained by the consequences of the fateful and expensive decisions taken in the Seventies by those same parties.

This country of instinctively pro-European leaders has also discovered that its commitment and obligations to the EU impose a strait-jacket on its economic and social policies. Belgian 'plumbers' have met their masters.

The latest round of negotiations at Val Duchesse taught the country another lesson by reminding everybody of the widening economic gap between the two major communities.

Flanders had proposed its own jobs-protection plan, but this was vetoed by the Walloon Minister Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe. The difference in the economic clout of the two regions could not have been underlined more clearly than by the widely diverging statistics that were mentioned during the talks: Flanders accounts for 68&percent; of Belgium's total corporate taxes, Wallonia for only 18&percent;.

Belgium has apparently arrived at a crossroads. But it is not alone in that predicament. The winter of discontent in Paris, as well as the austerity package recently announced by the German government, indicate that most EU governments are facing similar problems.

Like Jacques Chirac at the recent G7 summit in Lille, the Belgian ruling coalition would like to defend a 'third way' between the US social and economic model and the old European social democratic welfare state.

But unfortunately for Belgian politicians chained to macro-economic realities and stung by corporate vested interests, the EU no longer stands as the 'city on the hill' which will free the country from its sins.

In earlier and happier times, Europe inspired Belgium's politicians. Now, lacking a clear vision and admitting its own impotence in the fight for growth and against unemployment, the Union appears to mirror them.

This is the last “In Context” column by Jean-Paul Marthoz. From 1 May, he will join the Brussels office of Human Rights Watch, the largest US-based human rights organisation, as European press director.