Language War Flares Again

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31598, 8 February 1968, Page 11

Language War Flares Again

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BRUSSELS, February 7.

The Prime Minister, Mr Paul Vanden Boeynants, struggled to save his shaky coalition Government from disintegration today as Belgium’s latest

language battle wh year-old walls of I

tried round the 500.ouvain University.

The crisis threatening to smash the two-year-old Administration comes to a head this morning when the Cabinet will try to reach a lastminute compromise on whether the Roman Catholic university should abandon tuition in French. Flemish-speaking students, demanding the ban on French, battled with police yesterday as violent demonstrations swept the main Flemish towns of Antwerp, Malines, Bruges and Louvain. The students are backed not only by Flemish university professors and the bulk of the Flemish clergy, but also by the Flemish wing

of the Social Christian Party —the most powerful coalition partner. Political observers are agreed that the Government cannot hope to survive if it loses the support of the Social Christian’s Flemish wing which would result in the resignation of a number of ministers. The Social Christians’s total strength in the Lower House of Parliament is 77. and up to 52 are Flemish. The other coalition group—the Conservative Party of Liberty and Progress—has already said that it will oppose any move to make Louvain, one of the oldest Roman Catholic universities in the world, wholly Flemish. Mr Vandem Boeynants is due to make a statement on the crisis in the Lower House after the crucial Cabinet meeting to find a solution acceptable to all ministers. Flemish Social Christian Ministers will meet separately to discuss their own moves. Belgium has some five million Flemish-speaking residents in the north and west, another three .million who speak French in the south and east, and about 1,500,000 in the bilingual Brussels region. The Prime Minister may decide to offer his Government's resignation to King Baudouin immediately after the Cabinet meeting if he finds there is no hope of a compromise, according to observers.