Local elections in Belgium

Press, Volume CX, Issue 32425, 12 October 1970, Page 13

Local elections in Belgium

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) BRUSSELS, October 11. More than six million Belgians are voting today in local elections that could hold the key to the survival, as a unitary State, of their linguistically-divided country.

For the real issue at stake in the poll, beyond routine questions of road improvement and sewage disposal, is whether Belgium’s rival French and Flemish-speaking populations choose extremism or moderation. The Government will be

watching closely for signs of gains by the country’s extremist parties, such as the Flemish Volksunie and die French-speaking Democratic Front, which advocate nothing less than full federalism as the solution to the language problem. Any major gains would probably sabotage permanently the efforts of the Prime Minister (Mr Eysken) to achieve greater economic and cultural decentralisation while retaining the single State. Success for the extremist parties would swell the ranks of the waverers in the ruling coalition of Social Christians and Socialists; they have already succeeded in holding up Mr Eysken’s constitutional reform programme. The message of the electorate, however, may not be entirely clear, for a substantial percentage of votes in the 2000 communes involved will be cast on local, rather than national, issues. The results in Brussels, a French enclave in Flemish territory, may be particularly significant. Also of special interest will be the effect on the elections of votes by 250,000 young people between 18 and 21 i who have just been given the I vote.