Belgium's two main language communities have voted to turn in opposite directions: The question now is whether they will walk off altogether, according to dpa. The results of Sunday's snap elections showed a swing in favour of Dutch-language nationalism and economic conservatism in the wealthy northern province of Flanders, and a swing towards socialism and federalism in the poorer, French-speaking province of Wallonia. That puts the two halves of the country on a collision course as their politicians sit down to try and draw up a government. "Two societies, two directions: Flanders to the centre-right, Wallonia to the left," Bart De Wever, head of Flemish nationalist party N-VA, the big winner on election night, characterized the situation as the result became clear. The N-VA campaigned on calls to end Belgium's status as a federal state and turn it into a confederation. The winner in Wallonia, the French-speaking socialist party (PS), campaigned to strengthen the federal state. But the two parties' wins in their respective regions were so large that they now have little choice but to start coalition talks - and try to reconcile their apparently irreconcilable demands. "A right-wing party wins in Flanders and a left-wing one in Wallonia ... There will be difficult negotiations," predicted Mark Eyskens, a leading member of Dutch-language conservative party CD&V. Belgium's Dutch- and French-speaking communities have been grappling for power ever since the country was founded in 1830. Their differences triggered the fall of the last government in April and brought on Sunday's elections a year ahead of schedule. But the election only made the political landscape more complex, as it swept away the traditional liberal and conservative parties that had been the core of the previous government, and installed in their place a rampant N-VA in the north, and a rejuvenated socialist party (PS) in the south. The result is an "earthquake," Eyskens said, while Dutch-speaking liberal Johan Vande Lanotte termed it a "tsunami - some houses were swept away, others have been severely damaged." Belgian tradition states that a coalition government must represent the political majority in both Flanders and Wallonia. After the last elections, in 2007, the only way to achieve that was an alliance between the PS and the Dutch- and French-speaking liberals and conservatives, with the N-VA in opposition. But the rise of the N-VA and the PS, and the fall from grace of the PS' former allies, make it all but certain that the first coalition talks will have to be between N-VA and PS. "If French-speaking voters choose the PS, we will have to negotiate with them," De Wever acknowledged. Those talks promise to be anything but simple: The PS and N-VA are at odds on everything from tax policy to education, to say nothing of the explosive question of state reform. "The talks will be very, very, very complicated," one analyst told French-language broadcaster RTBF. As the results emerged, both sides hurried to offer one another an olive branch: De Wever saying he wanted to "stretch out a hand" to the French-speakers and the head of the socialists, Elio Di Rupo, urging French-speakers to "take a step towards" Flanders. But De Wever's victory speech is unlikely to have reassured many French-speaking voters. "It is not the end of the country, it is an evolution: The country is dividing itself into two separate democracies," he said, in an echo of earlier N-VA calls for a division of the federal state. Indeed, as the results were still coming in, other politicians warned that De Wever would have a hard time convincing Walloons that he was ready to compromise, while at the same time convincing his own party rank and file that he was sticking to his pledges. "He has very hard-line followers," Eyskens warned. And with De Wever himself torn between the need to form a viable government and the imperative to satisfy his own voters, he will have to step very, very carefully if he is to steer Belgium's communities back in the same direction - rather than driving them apart.
