Language dispute threatens coalition

Press, 22 October 1986, Page 10

Language dispute threatens coalition

NZPA-Reuter Brussels Belgium’s longestserving Government since World War II is threatened by a split between two of its four coalition parties in a language dispute between French and Dutch speakers. The Flemish Social Christian Party (C.V.P.) said after a meeting in Brussels yesterday that it was not prepared to accept a three-month language truce proposed by its sister Flemish Social Christian Party (P.S.C.) if it meant maintaining a sacked mayor in office. In a move that may unseat the Prime Minister, Dr Wilfried Martens, a C.V.P. member, the party’s president, Frank Swaelen, said it was prepared to consider the P.S.C.’s ideas for a truce as long as this did not mean suspending the nor-

mal processes of the law. Commentators said Dr Martens must resolve the differences between the coalition partners • by Thursday when he is due to present a common Government response in Parliament in a confidence debate called by the Opposition Socialists. The crisis over the militant French-speaking Mayor of Fourons, Mr Jose Happart, who refuses to speak Dutch, cost the Interior Minister, Mr Charles Ferdinand Nothomb, of the P.S.C., his job at the week-end. Dr Martens, who was swept back to power for a second four-year term at the head of his CentreRight coalition a year ago, moved quickly to replace Nothomb after his resignation on Saturday in a bid to avoid a Government collapse.

He appointed another P.S.C. leader, Joseph Michel, to replace Mr Nothomb and try to settle once and for all a problem that goes back to an adminstrative rejigging of mayoral borders in 1963, a task described by one Government source as a suicide mission. The P.S.C. yesterday proposed a three-month truce to give Mr Michel time to work out a solution to the problem of six small Fourons villages in eastern Belgium which caused the fall of several Governments before Martens first came to power in 1979. The truce call was widely interpreted as a move to allow Mr Happart to remain as acting mayor, a position to which he was elected on Friday by a majority who support him in the local council.