Politics of Wallonia

This article is about politics in Wallonia, with a focus on political parties and political life.

Walloon politics is similar to the politics of the French-speaking community in Belgium: the French-speaking socialist party PS is viewed as dominating both. The liberal party Mouvement Réformateur (MR) is a close second on both, and the greens (Ecolo) and Christian Democrats, who recently renamed themselves the Centre Démocrate Humaniste (CDH) battle for a distant third place. Wallonia has no notable political party that is only active in Wallonia, and not in Brussels.

General public policy is currently dominated by the PS which has members in the regional and federal government, as well as all large and nearly all mid-size city governments. Elio Di Rupo, its president is widely seen as by far the most powerful politician in French-speaking Belgium. Many Flemish nationalists portray him as the number one in Belgium. Walloon public services are quite important and accordingly funded. The employment in Walloon public services is relatively high compared to that in the rest of the E.U.

Also, when during 2002 and 2003, the question of giving voting rights in municipal elections to non-citizens (thus not requiring them to acquire citizenship, as is the case for federal and regional elections), French-speaking parties were in favour, although around 1/3 of the French-speakers were against; both sides claim their arguments got only rare attention in the mainstream press.

Public radio and television are considered by some to be influenced by the dominant political forces. The Board of Directors of RTBF, the public television and radio, includes many nominees from the governing parties. The GERFA mentions the "direct intervention of the presidents of the political parties in the nomination of department managers in 2003, in spite of promises of depoliticization" (Source: GERFA, [1], point A.2.3, in French). This sometimes translates in censorship. Members of the dominant French-speaking parties have attempted to forbid journalists of a public TV channel from interviewing Flemish politicians.