Lingua Belgica

In Charleroi, the Walloon banners screamed "No to a Flemish dictatorship!" An orator in Flanders shouted, "We reject all further compromises!" The angry shouts over much of Belgium last week were the latest outbursts in the ancient hostility between the nation's 5,250,000 Flemings in the north who speak a language related to Dutch, and the 4,000,000 French-speaking Walloons in the south. Since Belgium seceded from The Netherlands 133 years ago, the numerically superior Flemings have always resented the traditional economic and social superiority of the Walloons. "We're the only country in Europe with an oppressed majority," says Belgium's Flemish Premier Theo Lefevre.

Lefevre was overstating the case. Since the end of World War II, Flanders has capitalized on a healthy dollop of U.S. aid to industrialize and acquire a patina of prosperity, while Wallonia, with its played-out coal mines, has been plagued by chronic unemployment. Last year, when violent riots broke out between the two factions, the Flemish majority in Parliament passed a law dividing Belgium into two separate unilingual sections along a line extending from the German border south of Aachen to the French frontier; to the north, Flemish would be the official language in schools, courts and administrative offices; to the south, only French would be recognized.

The compromise was a failure, and last week demonstrations broke out in Brussels and Louvain, both of which are north of the line and both of which have always been accorded a measure of bilingual status. At Louvain University, Walloon professors and students went out on strike, boycotting lectures and classes in protest over the proposed bilingual split of the traditionally French-speaking university. In an attempt to solve the explosive situation, Premier Lefevre called for a two-week "language armistice" while his government tried to work out another compromise. But with Parliament split along language lines, there was little hope of a solution. Unless the bitterly antagonistic Flemings and Walloons learn to live with each other, said one Deputy in Parliament last week, "I can only conclude that in a small country live small people."

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