Claude Eerdekens’ unrelenting observation: Wallonia-Brussels bankrupt in 2030
‘I don’t foresee anything positive for the future. (…) The most saddening thing is the inability of the political world to dare to tell the citizens the truth.’ Rattachist outburst Claude Eerdekens has just celebrated his 50th anniversary as mayor of Andenne. The man is known for his boldness and independence of mind. In his office in the town hall, a portrait of General de Gaulle immediately caught the eye. No one has forgotten ‘rattachiste’ outburst in the conference room on July 10, 1996. Wants to die…
‘I don’t foresee anything positive for the future. (…) The most saddening thing is the inability of the political world to dare to tell the citizens the truth.’
Rattachist Outburst
Claude Eerdekens has just celebrated his 50th anniversary as mayor of Andenne. The man is known for his boldness and independence of mind. In his office in the town hall, a portrait of General de Gaulle immediately caught the eye. nobody is his’rattachisteruption in the conference room on July 10, 1996.
Claude Eerdekens: ‘If a majority of Flemish people think like you, then the hours of the country are numbered . (…) We Walloons are proud to stand next to a great country like France. If you want France to stand at the gates of Brussels, go your gang!’ And VLD MP Rik Daems’: ‘If you want to go to France!
Attention from France
The incident was discussed during the ceremonies on the occasion of 14 July. This was a debate about Belgian political politics.
A debate that the French settlement follow with the utmost attention. So much so that, during the Belgian political crisis of 2010, the Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly will charge two of them with a fact-findingmission to Belgium to prepare a report on the situation of the country.
With his statement, Claude Eerdekens put an end to the taboo surrounding the issue of Wallonia’s ties to France. An issue to which, as we know, General de Gaulle was personally sensitive.
De Gaulle on Wallonia
In his book C’était de Gaulle (Editions de Fallois/Fayard, volume III, 2000), former minister Alain Peyrefitte mentions the following statements made by Colombey’s husband on 20 July 1967:
‘I know that after the Liberation it would have been enough for me to snap my fingers if Wallonia asked to be added to France. (…) But at the end of the war we already have enough trouble with the British and the Americans not to add this. So I referred my (Walloon) visitors to a more distant future. I have told them that the history of nations is long, that they outlive all the artificial constructions that men can impose on them. And that on the day that Wallonia, by the vote of its legal representatives, or preferentially by referendum, decides to join France, we will open our arms to it wholeheartedly.’
How much water has flowed under the bridge. The dismantling of the Belgian state has continued inexorably under the hammer of Flemish nationalism.
Seventh state reform
A seventh state reform must be prepared before 2024, but the differences between North and South are so great that a compromise between the French-speaking federal option and the Flemish confederal option is difficult to achieve. The famous ‘Belgian compromise’ seems to have reached its limits. The fact is that Flanders no longer behaves as a federated state, but as a real nation.
Contribution in Le Monde
I bone this in the stands Et si, en 2024, la Wallonie devenait françaisewhich recently appeared on the website of the French newspaper Le Monde has been published and which Louis Nisse, member of the Alliance Wallonie-France, has sent to Claude Eerdekens.
The latter’s reply contains an inexorable remark, which we reproduce here in its entirety:
“Obviously, 2024 is a particularly troubling timeframe.
As Jules Gude can rightly pointed out, a success of the Flemish nationalist parties, the NVA and Belang, could lead to the Flemish having a majority in the Chamber of Flemish independence tomorrow.
However, there are other elements that need to be taken into account. They make me think it’s yet to come.
1°) Flanders is one of the most economically prosperous regions in Europe.
2°) Wallonia to recover development and the level of employment is not sufficient, despite some successes.
3°) The inevitable bankruptcy of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation endangers all recovery projects in Wallonia. To make sure you know better than anyone else, the quality of education is in French, despite the substantial effects of resources deployed.
What the French-speaking Walloons and Brussels residents lose sight of is that the pensions of French-speaking teachers are paid by the federal state. Flemings who know how to count know that there are proportionally more teachers in Brussels and Wallonia than in Flanders.
The cost of the pension of the French-speaking teachers is a transfer from North to South, together with the payment of the pensions of the regional officials.
By 2030, the Wallonia-Brussels federation will be bankrupt. All parties do this and hide it.
4°) The current Walloon government, petrified by the progress of the PTB, sets the money press on a frenzied sprint towards inevitable bankruptcy.
5°) The municipal powers will collapse with the transfer of the latter from the federal to the local level, expressed what I call ‘the municipal pumpjack’, exhausted.
6°) The expenditure of the police and the rescue zones is skyrocketing.
7°) On 1 January 2021, the collection of the property tax has been regionalised.
All Walloon municipalities and provinces will receive 90% of the property tax collected by the FPS Finance in 2021.
8°) Look for the error for the triangles!
She feels rushed.
The indexation of wages reduces the cost of the energy bill.
One Walloon municipality after another will go bankrupt.’
Nothing positive for the future
So I don’t see anything positive in the future, even though I’m an optimist by nature. Of these, the most distressing is the inability of politics to dare to speak the truth.
In conclusion, I share the feeling that 2024, and especially the years to come, will be crucial. We will have to roll up our terrible ones, for no one knows at this point what the future will bring.