History of the Walloon Movement
Encyclopedia
The Walloon Movement traces its ancestry to 1856 when literary and folkloric movements based around the Society of Walloon Literature of Liège began forming. Despite the formation of the Society of Walloon Literature, it was not until around 1880 that a "Walloon and French-speaking defense movement" appeared, following the linguistic laws of the 1870s. The movement asserted the existence of Wallonia and a Walloon identity
while maintaining the defense of the French language
.
, linguistic problems arose with the first language laws. After the invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, French revolutionaries began the “francisation” of the country. Under the Old Regime French coexisted with many languages, including Latin and English, but the decree of 2nd Thermidor
Year II made French
the official language of France and its territories. Revolutionary France differentiated between Flemish and Walloon provinces: "It seems the revolutionaries themselves consider the fact French was enough close to the Walloon language so as not to manage Wallonia as Brittany, Corsica, Alsace or Flanders.". The French Consulate
and Empire
extended the francisation process by requiring all the civil servants of Flanders to become French citizens. Authorities sent members of the French bourgeoisie and clergy to Belgium to replace Belgian elites and moved Belgian elites to France to remove them from their roots and their culture. For example, Flemish seminarians were trained in Paris and Lyon under the direction of Jean-Armand de Roquelaure
, the archbishop of Malines, a French clerk installed by French authorities.
After the fall of the French Empire
, the Congress of Vienna
united the Belgian provinces of the Austrian Netherlands with the former Dutch Republic
, forming the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
. The new ruler of the United Kingdom, William I
, gave Dutch
the status of «national language» in order to reduce the influence of French ideas. On September 15, 1819, William I decreed Dutch as the official language for justice and governmental administration although he did not prohibit the use of other languages. According to Hervé Hasquin
the goal of these policies was the 'cultural homogenization of our regions'. William I "believed or feigned to believe that French was introduced into the Walloon provinces only under the pressure of foreign influence." The linguistic barrier "acquired administrative significance for the first time in 1822 with William I's legislation on the use of Dutch in Flemish communes." William's linguistic policies were one of the contributing factors that led to the Belgian Revolution
of 1830 and the linguistic legislation of the first unionist governments.
The young Belgian government officially recognized only the French language, though the Constitution allowed for the free use of all languages. In the 1840s the Flemish Movement
appeared in response to the Belgian government's recognition of French as the official language. The Walloon Movement developed subsequently as a reaction to the claims of the Flemish Movement.
and in Brussels
, a French-speaking movement was set up within civil servant circles to combat the introduction of Dutch as the language of administration. For the first Walloon militants the recognition of Dutch meant job losses, the infantilisation of the culture, and an attack on national unity. In 1877 the first political Walloon association, the Walloon League of Ixelles, was formed. In 1883 the Walloon Beehive in Anvers, whose motto is «Walloon I am, Belgian first and foremost», was founded. The Walloon movement developed rapidly in the south but was mostly confined to the bourgeoisie. The liberal leading elements of the bourgeoisie consider the Flemish Movement as a machination proposing to keep the Dutch-speaking provinces under the heel of religion. Arnaud Pirotte disagreed with the notion that the Walloon movement started with the Walloon reaction to the success of the Flemish Movement.
The first members of the Walloon Movement promoted neither federalism nor separatism. Their rhetoric was confined to defending Belgium and the use of the French language. For the early Walloon Movement, the daily use of the French language was considered the cement holding the country together:
During this period a variety of Walloon leagues fought against the use of Dutch as the official languaqe. The most prominent was the Society of Walloon Propaganda, which was founded on February 23, 1888 by lawyer Édouard Termonia. The Society had three goals: to defend the acquired rights of the Walloon agents in civil service; to defend the French language and culture; and to unify the varied Walloon leagues of Brussels under a common banner. The Society organized the first Walloon congresses in Brussels in July 1890, in Namur
in December 1891, in Liège
in November 1892, and in Mons
in November 1893. Yves Quairiaux writes that at the Mons congress delegates from Walloon provinces were in the minority and the assembly voted in favor of teaching Dutch in French-speaking provinces. The first congresses were unpopular, especially in southern Belgium, and the first members of the Walloon Movement were so disorganized that the fifth congress (to be held in 1894) was cancelled. In 1895 the Society of Walloon Propaganda asked deputies to leave an assembly when a French-speaking orator presented a speech in Dutch. In 1896, when the Coremans-De Vriendt law was first proposed, the Society of Walloon Propaganda and the Walloon League of Ixelles began a protest campaign. They sent petitions signed by communal administrations and members of the bar
to the Senate. The first article of the Coremans-De Vriendt law declares that “the laws are voted, sanctioned, promulgated and published in French language and Dutch language”. The law reminded the Walloon Movement that their privileges were endangered by the recognition of Dutch as an official language for administration and justice.
After the passage of the Coremans-De Vriendt law, the Walloon League of Liège called for the creation of a Walloon National League. The Walloon National League, founded on May 8, 1898, led the Walloon Movement from 1898–1905, a period which saw the affirmation of a political Wallonia at the expense of French-speaking interests in Flanders and Brussels. In 1899 the Society of Walloon Propaganda asked for the seat of the Walloon National League to be transferred to Brussels, but the measure failed because “other towns of Wallonia estimat[ed] that Liège was the Walloon capital”.
The political relationship between the Walloon language and the Walloon Movement also changed. Before the Coremans-De Vriendt law, the idea of the equality of all languages was not accepted by Walloon militants who considered Flemish to be an idiom. In their eyes the Flemings had to give up their idiom just as the Walloons had done. The recognition of Dutch pushed the Walloon Movement to more adamantly defend the Walloon language. This transition is indicated by the Walloon League of Liège beginning its publication of articles in Walloon. Before the Walloon League of Liège, the use of the Walloon language had been confined to religious and folk publications. The promotion of the Walloon language was never strong with Wallingants who were attached to French Jacobinism.
French-speaking elites, fearful of becoming a minority after the recognition of Dutch as the official language, began creating a French-speaking unilingual Wallonia. Promoted in 1844 by Joseph Grandgagnage, the word Wallonie indicated a linguistic and cultural area. Gradually it acquired political significance. The acquisition of a political meaning began with the creation of federalistic projects in Belgium.
, was a new step for the Walloon Movement. After the congress separatist ideas began to mature. Julien Delaite, a leader of the Walloon Movement, explained what his vision of the Walloon Movement was in a speech at the salle académique of the University of Liège
:
After this congress, the Walloon Movement increasingly embraced separatism. The congress of 1905 reunited twenty-five societies and liberal minded politicians, artists, and industrialists who were inhabitants of Liège. Another political shift started during this period with socialists joining the Walloon Movement in increasing numbers.
The massive arrival of socialists was caused not only by a linguistic cleavage, but also by a political cleavage. Since October 1884 Belgium saw a succession of catholic governments whose supporters were largely Dutch-speaking. The historian Maarten Van Ginderachter writes that Walloons were excluded from national power. Between 1884 and 1902 there was only one Walloon in the Belgian government. Liberals and socialists agreed to organize nationally for the 1912 legislative and provincial elections. The defeat of the socialist-liberal political alliance by the Catholic Party
initiated a profound change within the movement. The majority of Walloon militants, and this for a few years, have considered whereas the catholic conservative majority in North is installed for a long time and that makes sterile the leftist majority in the South, which the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws
underlined during the project of flemishisation of the University of Ghent: «Again we draw the attention of everyone to the tactics of the opponents to Flemish Movement: they know that they are swept everywhere in Flemish areas — consequently they must excite the Walloons».
This observation weighs heavy in «the passage from a unitarian antiflamingantism to the strictly Walloon claims». The congress of 1912 is then the occasion to clearly assert the administrative separation and the existence of Wallonia. This political proposal, already timidly advanced since 1897 and 1898 respectively per Albert Mockel and Julien Delaite, becomes one of the principal claims of Walloon Movement starting from this “Congress of combat” as its organizers define it. And it is during the same congress of 1912 that Walloon nationalism is really born: a Walloon Assembly is made up as an unofficial Walloon Parliament of which the goal first is the promotion of the idea of an administrative separation with the unilinguism in Wallonia and bilingualism in Flanders. This obvious imbalance in the Walloon claims will only radicalize the Flemish Movement.
The Walloon Assembly is really the first unified walloon organism and it acquiered et it quickly acquires a great influence on the Walloon Movement that it keeps until the beginning of the 1930s. This unofficial parliament will be the symbol of the combat for the autonomy of the Walloon nation, it will define the walloon flag and also the way the country should be divided administratively in two with the choice of Namur as capital and the division of the province of Brabant
. Choice what will follow the Germans within the framework of Flamenpolitik
intended to destroy Belgium. In spite of the defense of unionistic theses, the policies of the Walloon movement are shown intended to irrevocably divide Belgium.
This is also in the spirit of these congress that socialist Jules Destrée write his Lettre au Roi sur la séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre, letter that represents perfectly with the Walloon Assembly that period of the Movement. Extremely agitated period of toughening as show the events happened during the “Joyeuse Entrée” of king Albert I
in Liège on 13 July 1913 when he is welcome by separatists demonstrations: The socialist and republican newspaper Le Peuple wrote «When, between provincial palate and the Town hall, crowd breaks the police cords protecting the king, the exasperated wallonisants benefit from the distress for to express with the royal family their aspirations of independence. Holding up the Walloon flag with the red cock, they precipitate towards the pram and balance under the nose of the king the new colors». It adds that «while flowers fall from the stages rises the dominating cry “Lives Wallonia!”». Other newspapers as the Gazette de Liège minimized these demonstrations.
During World War I, on 3 May 1918, an informant of the Belgian Embassy in the Netherlands sent this report to this Embassy: As determined by domestic policy, the ruling of the country belongs to a party which leans principally on the Flemish and agricultural regions of Belgium while the Walloon and industrial regions of the country are totally excluded from this running. It is an anormal situation, which is caused by a bad application of the parlementiarism (..) which was already obvious before the war and which will deteriorate. The difference between the Flemish issue and the Walloon issue is that the Flemings are pursuing intellectual and moral goals while the Walloons are demanding the immediate abolition of a situation they consider improper and hurtful. This report was sent to King Albert and his Government in Sainte-Adresse (NPDC)
revived the patriotism in Belgium, especially after the application of the Flamenpolitik by German occupying forces during the war. Even though the majority of the wallingant and flamingant organizations ceased their activities, a minority of Walloon and Flemish militants collaborated with the Germans. Walloon activism is even more marginal than the Flemish side, but it seemed less handled by the German authorities than this last. At the end of the war, Walloon and Flemish activists will be severely judged but only Flemish activism will be used during the interbellum against flemish revendications since Spring 1919, whereas Walloon activism sinks into oblivion, the French-speaking press and also Wallingant propaganda papers to buckle down to create an image of a “Flandre embochée” (German-friendly Flanders) :
The experience of World War I and the reviving of Belgian patriotism brake the Walloon Movement that only began to affirm itself few years early, and are a source of division in the Movement. The Walloon Assembly, at that time the standard-bearer of wallingant revendications, adopt a Belgian nationalist position, position opposed to its prime goal. That involves tensions with the more radicals wallingants who then leave the Assembly and its satellites. These tensions arrive at the moment of linguistic law of 31 July 1921 which envisages the constitution of 3 linguistic Regions, two unilingual — one Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking — and one bilingual. Even if in the facts the bilingual communes and of the Dutch-speaking Area and the French-speaking Area become all French-speaking and that the bilingualism of Brussels was also regarded as a victory by the French-speaking people, this law is felt as a threat by the Walloon militants because it blames the experiment up to now unilingual of Wallonia: the law provides indeed that the other language can be used in each linguistic Region. Despite every amendments brought to the law at the Senate, only three walloon deputies on fifty-nine with the Room will vote for it: fifty and one vote against and six abstain from. Since 1920, the Assembly undergoes a large disaffection and loses its more famous names whereas create for themselves dissenting leagues a little everywhere. The Action Committee of the Walloon Assembly in Liege becomes a new Walloon League of Liège and affirms itself more and more since 1923 as the new leader of the movement. This league undertakes then to do a hard work of propaganda: from 1924 to 1930, it organizes seven annual congresses from which is born a new gathering of walloon associations, the Walloon Concentration.
, communism
and Nazism
.
The Walloon Concentration, initiated by the most radicalized factions, organized congresses within the Walloon Concentration. The first congress was organized in Liège on the 27 and 28 of September, 1930, at the occasion of the Centennial of the independence of Belgium. The wish of the organizers was that all trends, both extremist and moderate, should be represented. The congress members all rallied in one intransigent motion: the French identity and integrity of Wallonia and the recognition to Flemish people of their own identity. Their position was total regional unilinguism. They decided that it is within the framework of Belgium, the solution for the Walloon-Flemish disagreement should be found, and a constitutional revision should be created. To this end, they decided to create a commission to work out a project to be presented at the next congress. At this next congress, the commission presented its choice: a federalist project, preferred to a provincialist project more moderated and to a simple separatism. A text of resolution was redesigned, and the unanimity of congress members ratified it, except 9 abstentions mainly from delegates of the Arrondissement of Brussels
. This resolution is also the first important text where Christian leftists
were involved, as Élie Baussart.
This returned to the ideas of 1912 and this inversion in the Walloon claimed to the profit of a unilingual Dutch-speaking area came mainly from the fear of the "Flemish islets" — a tool of the Flemish "imperialism" in wallingant speech — in the French-speaking provinces, because the linguistic law of 1921 envisaged the use of Dutch there. Moreover, many Dutch-speakers settle in the South of the country to work, a fact not appreciated by the wallingants because these new populations are often close to the Catholic Party and could call into question the unilinguism of Wallonia, as stated by the liberal François Bovesse:
At the same time, the linguistic law is also regarded as dangerous by Flemish militants because according to them, it contributes to territorial nibbling in favour of the French language. The wallingants then put agreement with the flamingants. On 16 March 1929, wallingant Destrée and flamingant Camille Huysmans
sign, with 26 other socialist deputies within the P.O.B, the "Compromis des Belges" (Compromise of the Belgians) for the linguistic and cultural homogeneity of the Flanders and Wallonia, leading to the linguistic law of 14 July 1932. It prescribes Dutch as the official language of the Flanders, and French as official language of Wallonia, consciously sacrificing the linguistic rights of the French-speaking people of Flanders.
Other congresses of the Walloon Concentration are organized to the war, as the congress of 1935 during which the militants assert the right for the Walloons to dispose of themselves. Those of 1933 and 1936 are the occasion to affirm the need of an economic collaboration between France and Belgium and to criticize the Belgian foreign policy of neutrality asserting which it is wished by Germany and that a bringing together with France was preferable, position registered in the Francophile tradition of the Walloon movement. The congress of 1937 is the abandonment of the federalist project for confederalism in order to favor a Walloon foreign policy, notoriously pro-French.
The end of the interbellum is also the time of the formation of the first Walloon political parties, for example the Nationalist Walloon Party-French Party and the Democratic Walloon Party both created for the anticipated elections of 2 April 1939. The first one created was the Walloon League of Deux-Houdeng in 1938, following Albert du Bois' rattachist
thought, but disappeared rapidly. The second, Mahieu's Democratic Walloon Front, transformed into a political party a few weeks before the elections. Without any backup from Walloon associations and with only two important figures with Jules Mahieu and Arille Carlier, this wallingant party got only 10,000 votes in the seven counties where it was present.
Walloons
Walloons are a French-speaking people who live in Belgium, principally in Wallonia. Walloons are a distinctive community within Belgium, important historical and anthropological criteria bind Walloons to the French people. More generally, the term also refers to the inhabitants of the Walloon...
while maintaining the defense of the French language
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
.
Origins
During French control of the Low CountriesLow Countries
The Low Countries are the historical lands around the low-lying delta of the Rhine, Scheldt, and Meuse rivers, including the modern countries of Belgium, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and parts of northern France and western Germany....
, linguistic problems arose with the first language laws. After the invasion of the Austrian Netherlands, French revolutionaries began the “francisation” of the country. Under the Old Regime French coexisted with many languages, including Latin and English, but the decree of 2nd Thermidor
Thermidor
Thermidor was the eleventh month in the French Republican Calendar. The month was named after the French word thermal which comes from the Greek word "thermos" which means heat....
Year II made French
French language
French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...
the official language of France and its territories. Revolutionary France differentiated between Flemish and Walloon provinces: "It seems the revolutionaries themselves consider the fact French was enough close to the Walloon language so as not to manage Wallonia as Brittany, Corsica, Alsace or Flanders.". The French Consulate
French Consulate
The Consulate was the government of France between the fall of the Directory in the coup of 18 Brumaire in 1799 until the start of the Napoleonic Empire in 1804...
and Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
extended the francisation process by requiring all the civil servants of Flanders to become French citizens. Authorities sent members of the French bourgeoisie and clergy to Belgium to replace Belgian elites and moved Belgian elites to France to remove them from their roots and their culture. For example, Flemish seminarians were trained in Paris and Lyon under the direction of Jean-Armand de Roquelaure
Jean-Armand de Bessuéjouls Roquelaure
Jean-Armand de Bessuéjouls Roquelaure , was Archbishop of Mechelen, Belgium. He was appointed Bishop of Senlis on 17 March 1754 and resigned on 21 September 1801. He was appointed Archbishop on 9 April 1802.-Source:*...
, the archbishop of Malines, a French clerk installed by French authorities.
After the fall of the French Empire
First French Empire
The First French Empire , also known as the Greater French Empire or Napoleonic Empire, was the empire of Napoleon I of France...
, the Congress of Vienna
Congress of Vienna
The Congress of Vienna was a conference of ambassadors of European states chaired by Klemens Wenzel von Metternich, and held in Vienna from September, 1814 to June, 1815. The objective of the Congress was to settle the many issues arising from the French Revolutionary Wars, the Napoleonic Wars,...
united the Belgian provinces of the Austrian Netherlands with the former Dutch Republic
Dutch Republic
The Dutch Republic — officially known as the Republic of the Seven United Netherlands , the Republic of the United Netherlands, or the Republic of the Seven United Provinces — was a republic in Europe existing from 1581 to 1795, preceding the Batavian Republic and ultimately...
, forming the United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands
United Kingdom of the Netherlands is the unofficial name used to refer to Kingdom of the Netherlands during the period after it was first created from part of the First French Empire and before the new kingdom of Belgium split out in 1830...
. The new ruler of the United Kingdom, William I
William I of the Netherlands
William I Frederick, born Willem Frederik Prins van Oranje-Nassau , was a Prince of Orange and the first King of the Netherlands and Grand Duke of Luxembourg....
, gave Dutch
Dutch language
Dutch is a West Germanic language and the native language of the majority of the population of the Netherlands, Belgium, and Suriname, the three member states of the Dutch Language Union. Most speakers live in the European Union, where it is a first language for about 23 million and a second...
the status of «national language» in order to reduce the influence of French ideas. On September 15, 1819, William I decreed Dutch as the official language for justice and governmental administration although he did not prohibit the use of other languages. According to Hervé Hasquin
Hervé Hasquin
Hervé Hasquin is a Belgian university professor, historian and politician.-References:*http://www.academieroyale.be/cgi?usr=fyfua8gbce&lg=fr&pag=690&tab=2&rec=13&frm=0&par=secorig593&id=5161&flux=2659797...
the goal of these policies was the 'cultural homogenization of our regions'. William I "believed or feigned to believe that French was introduced into the Walloon provinces only under the pressure of foreign influence." The linguistic barrier "acquired administrative significance for the first time in 1822 with William I's legislation on the use of Dutch in Flemish communes." William's linguistic policies were one of the contributing factors that led to the Belgian Revolution
Belgian Revolution
The Belgian Revolution was the conflict which led to the secession of the Southern provinces from the United Kingdom of the Netherlands and established an independent Kingdom of Belgium....
of 1830 and the linguistic legislation of the first unionist governments.
The young Belgian government officially recognized only the French language, though the Constitution allowed for the free use of all languages. In the 1840s the Flemish Movement
Flemish movement
The Flemish Movement is a popular term used to describe the political movement for emancipation and greater autonomy of the Belgian region of Flanders, for protection of the Dutch language, and for the over-all protection of Flemish culture and history....
appeared in response to the Belgian government's recognition of French as the official language. The Walloon Movement developed subsequently as a reaction to the claims of the Flemish Movement.
1880-1898 : Opposition to official recognition of Dutch
Born in FlandersFlanders
Flanders is the community of the Flemings but also one of the institutions in Belgium, and a geographical region located in parts of present-day Belgium, France and the Netherlands. "Flanders" can also refer to the northern part of Belgium that contains Brussels, Bruges, Ghent and Antwerp...
and in Brussels
Brussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
, a French-speaking movement was set up within civil servant circles to combat the introduction of Dutch as the language of administration. For the first Walloon militants the recognition of Dutch meant job losses, the infantilisation of the culture, and an attack on national unity. In 1877 the first political Walloon association, the Walloon League of Ixelles, was formed. In 1883 the Walloon Beehive in Anvers, whose motto is «Walloon I am, Belgian first and foremost», was founded. The Walloon movement developed rapidly in the south but was mostly confined to the bourgeoisie. The liberal leading elements of the bourgeoisie consider the Flemish Movement as a machination proposing to keep the Dutch-speaking provinces under the heel of religion. Arnaud Pirotte disagreed with the notion that the Walloon movement started with the Walloon reaction to the success of the Flemish Movement.
The first members of the Walloon Movement promoted neither federalism nor separatism. Their rhetoric was confined to defending Belgium and the use of the French language. For the early Walloon Movement, the daily use of the French language was considered the cement holding the country together:
The emerging Walloon Movement thus fits in a Belgian perspective as its contours and especially its linguistic identity was defined for this State in 1830. It regards the acquisition of the French language as a form of adhesion to Belgium and to the great principles of freedom in the Constitution.
During this period a variety of Walloon leagues fought against the use of Dutch as the official languaqe. The most prominent was the Society of Walloon Propaganda, which was founded on February 23, 1888 by lawyer Édouard Termonia. The Society had three goals: to defend the acquired rights of the Walloon agents in civil service; to defend the French language and culture; and to unify the varied Walloon leagues of Brussels under a common banner. The Society organized the first Walloon congresses in Brussels in July 1890, in Namur
Namur (city)
Namur is a city and municipality in Wallonia, in southern Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia....
in December 1891, in Liège
Liège
Liège is a major city and municipality of Belgium located in the province of Liège, of which it is the economic capital, in Wallonia, the French-speaking region of Belgium....
in November 1892, and in Mons
Mons
Mons is a Walloon city and municipality located in the Belgian province of Hainaut, of which it is the capital. The Mons municipality includes the old communes of Cuesmes, Flénu, Ghlin, Hyon, Nimy, Obourg, Baudour , Jemappes, Ciply, Harmignies, Harveng, Havré, Maisières, Mesvin, Nouvelles,...
in November 1893. Yves Quairiaux writes that at the Mons congress delegates from Walloon provinces were in the minority and the assembly voted in favor of teaching Dutch in French-speaking provinces. The first congresses were unpopular, especially in southern Belgium, and the first members of the Walloon Movement were so disorganized that the fifth congress (to be held in 1894) was cancelled. In 1895 the Society of Walloon Propaganda asked deputies to leave an assembly when a French-speaking orator presented a speech in Dutch. In 1896, when the Coremans-De Vriendt law was first proposed, the Society of Walloon Propaganda and the Walloon League of Ixelles began a protest campaign. They sent petitions signed by communal administrations and members of the bar
Bar association
A bar association is a professional body of lawyers. Some bar associations are responsible for the regulation of the legal profession in their jurisdiction; others are professional organizations dedicated to serving their members; in many cases, they are both...
to the Senate. The first article of the Coremans-De Vriendt law declares that “the laws are voted, sanctioned, promulgated and published in French language and Dutch language”. The law reminded the Walloon Movement that their privileges were endangered by the recognition of Dutch as an official language for administration and justice.
1898-1904: Political awakening
The Coremans-De Vriendt law, called the “law of Equality" (“Gelijkheidswet” in Dutch), was passed by a small majority in both the Chamber of the Deputies and the Senate. In the Chamber of the Deputies only twenty-one Wallooon Deputies voted yes, while nineteen voted no, and four abstained. In the Senate only three of the forty Walloon Senators present voted to pass the law. The law was promulgated on April 18, 1898, constituting a turning point in the history of the Walloon Movement. The Walloon Movement, once confined to Brussels and Flanders, grew because of increased participation from French-speaking Belgians living in the south. The Society of Walloon Propaganda, once the engine of the Walloon Movement, had faded and disappeared by the 1900s. The Walloon League of Liège, founded in 1897 by the liberal Julien Delaitte, assumed the leadership of the Walloon Movement.After the passage of the Coremans-De Vriendt law, the Walloon League of Liège called for the creation of a Walloon National League. The Walloon National League, founded on May 8, 1898, led the Walloon Movement from 1898–1905, a period which saw the affirmation of a political Wallonia at the expense of French-speaking interests in Flanders and Brussels. In 1899 the Society of Walloon Propaganda asked for the seat of the Walloon National League to be transferred to Brussels, but the measure failed because “other towns of Wallonia estimat[ed] that Liège was the Walloon capital”.
The political relationship between the Walloon language and the Walloon Movement also changed. Before the Coremans-De Vriendt law, the idea of the equality of all languages was not accepted by Walloon militants who considered Flemish to be an idiom. In their eyes the Flemings had to give up their idiom just as the Walloons had done. The recognition of Dutch pushed the Walloon Movement to more adamantly defend the Walloon language. This transition is indicated by the Walloon League of Liège beginning its publication of articles in Walloon. Before the Walloon League of Liège, the use of the Walloon language had been confined to religious and folk publications. The promotion of the Walloon language was never strong with Wallingants who were attached to French Jacobinism.
French-speaking elites, fearful of becoming a minority after the recognition of Dutch as the official language, began creating a French-speaking unilingual Wallonia. Promoted in 1844 by Joseph Grandgagnage, the word Wallonie indicated a linguistic and cultural area. Gradually it acquired political significance. The acquisition of a political meaning began with the creation of federalistic projects in Belgium.
1905-1914: Political affirmations
In 1905 the fifth Walloon congress, which took place in Liège at the Liège International expositionLiège International (1905)
Exposition Universelle et Internationale de Liège was a world's fair held in Liège in 1905 from April 27 to November 6 just 8 years after a Belgian exposition held in Brussels...
, was a new step for the Walloon Movement. After the congress separatist ideas began to mature. Julien Delaite, a leader of the Walloon Movement, explained what his vision of the Walloon Movement was in a speech at the salle académique of the University of Liège
University of Liège
The University of Liège , in Liège, Wallonia, Belgium, is a major public university in the French Community of Belgium. Its official language is French.-History:...
:
We organized it apart from any spirit of party, to expose the right claims of the Walloons and to exalt the walloon spirit. We do want to criticize only what is criticizable, but we want to say everything, say it without fear. We do not attack the Flemings, but we intend to whip the flamingant exaggerations that threaten the integrity of the Belgian fatherland. We want also to clarify what the Walloons were in the past, what they carry out in the present, what they aspire for the future.
After this congress, the Walloon Movement increasingly embraced separatism. The congress of 1905 reunited twenty-five societies and liberal minded politicians, artists, and industrialists who were inhabitants of Liège. Another political shift started during this period with socialists joining the Walloon Movement in increasing numbers.
The massive arrival of socialists was caused not only by a linguistic cleavage, but also by a political cleavage. Since October 1884 Belgium saw a succession of catholic governments whose supporters were largely Dutch-speaking. The historian Maarten Van Ginderachter writes that Walloons were excluded from national power. Between 1884 and 1902 there was only one Walloon in the Belgian government. Liberals and socialists agreed to organize nationally for the 1912 legislative and provincial elections. The defeat of the socialist-liberal political alliance by the Catholic Party
Catholic Party (Belgium)
The first Catholic Party in Belgium was established in 1869 as the Confessional Catholic Party .-History:In 1852 a Union Constitutionelle et Conservatrice was founded in Ghent, in Leuven , and in Antwerp and Brussels in 1858, which were active only during elections...
initiated a profound change within the movement. The majority of Walloon militants, and this for a few years, have considered whereas the catholic conservative majority in North is installed for a long time and that makes sterile the leftist majority in the South, which the newspaper Het Laatste Nieuws
Het Laatste Nieuws
Het Laatste Nieuws is a Dutch language newspaper based in Brussels, Belgium. It was founded by Julius Hoste Sr. on 7 June 1888. It is now part of De Persgroep, and has a circulation of 292,410 copies, making it the most popular newspaper in Flanders and Belgium.- Comics :During World War II, The...
underlined during the project of flemishisation of the University of Ghent: «Again we draw the attention of everyone to the tactics of the opponents to Flemish Movement: they know that they are swept everywhere in Flemish areas — consequently they must excite the Walloons».
| Periods and Governments | Flemish ministers | Ministers from Brussels | Walloon Ministers |
| A. Beernaert Auguste Marie Francois Beernaert Auguste Marie François Beernaert was the 14th Prime Minister of Belgium from October 1884 to March 1894.... : 26 October 1884/ 17 March 1894 |
60 % | 14 % | 26 % |
| J. de Burlet Jules de Burlet Jules Philippe Marie de Burlet was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.Born in Ixelles, de Burlet was educated as a lawyer. He practised law in Nivelles, where he made his home, and he served as mayor of the town from 1872 to 1891.From 1884 he represented the Nivelles constituency in the Belgian... : 26 March 1894/ 25 June 1896 |
75 % | 9 % | 16 % |
| P. de Smet de Naeyer Paul de Smet de Naeyer Paul Joseph, Count de Smet de Naeyer was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.Born in Ghent, son of a cotton industrialist, he was himself also an industrialist and a banker... : 26 June 1896/ 23 January 1899 |
87 % | - | 13 % |
| J. Vandenpeereboom Jules Vandenpeereboom Jules Henri Pierre François Vandenpeereboom was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.Vandenpeereboom was born in Kortrijk and educated as a lawyer... : 24 January 1899/ 31 July 1899 |
84 % | - | 16 % |
| P. de Smet de Naeyer: 5 August 1899/ 12 April 1907 | 76 % | - | 24 % |
| J. de Trooz Jules de Trooz Jules Henri Ghislain Marie, Baron de Trooz was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.De Trooz was born in Leuven, and had studied philosophy before entering politics. He represented Leuven in the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives from 1899 onwards, serving as Education and Interior minister... : 1 May 1907/ 31 December 1907 |
67 % | 11 % | 22 % |
| F.Schollaert Frans Schollaert François Victor Marie Ghislain Schollaert was a Belgian Catholic Party politician.Born in Wilsele, Schollaert trained as a lawyer and practiced in Leuven. He served as head of the Flemish farmer's union, the Boerenbond... : 9 January 1908/ 8 June 1911 |
57 % | 22 % | 21 % |
| Ch. de Broqueville Charles de Broqueville Charles Marie Pierre Albert, Count de Broqueville was the 20th Prime Minister of Belgium, serving during World War I. He was born in Postel, Belgium. He was the leader of Belgium's Catholic Party, and he served as prime minister between 1911 and 1918... : 18 June 1911/ 4 August 1914 |
42 % | 22 % | 36 % |
This observation weighs heavy in «the passage from a unitarian antiflamingantism to the strictly Walloon claims». The congress of 1912 is then the occasion to clearly assert the administrative separation and the existence of Wallonia. This political proposal, already timidly advanced since 1897 and 1898 respectively per Albert Mockel and Julien Delaite, becomes one of the principal claims of Walloon Movement starting from this “Congress of combat” as its organizers define it. And it is during the same congress of 1912 that Walloon nationalism is really born: a Walloon Assembly is made up as an unofficial Walloon Parliament of which the goal first is the promotion of the idea of an administrative separation with the unilinguism in Wallonia and bilingualism in Flanders. This obvious imbalance in the Walloon claims will only radicalize the Flemish Movement.
The Walloon Assembly is really the first unified walloon organism and it acquiered et it quickly acquires a great influence on the Walloon Movement that it keeps until the beginning of the 1930s. This unofficial parliament will be the symbol of the combat for the autonomy of the Walloon nation, it will define the walloon flag and also the way the country should be divided administratively in two with the choice of Namur as capital and the division of the province of Brabant
Province of Brabant
Brabant was a province of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands from 1815 until 1830 and a province of Belgium from 1830 until 1995, when it was split into the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant, the French-speaking Walloon Brabant and the bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.-United Kingdom of the...
. Choice what will follow the Germans within the framework of Flamenpolitik
Flamenpolitik
Flamenpolitik is the name for certain policies pursued by German authorities occupying Belgium during World War I and World War II...
intended to destroy Belgium. In spite of the defense of unionistic theses, the policies of the Walloon movement are shown intended to irrevocably divide Belgium.
This is also in the spirit of these congress that socialist Jules Destrée write his Lettre au Roi sur la séparation de la Wallonie et de la Flandre, letter that represents perfectly with the Walloon Assembly that period of the Movement. Extremely agitated period of toughening as show the events happened during the “Joyeuse Entrée” of king Albert I
Albert I of Belgium
Albert I reigned as King of the Belgians from 1909 until 1934.-Early life:Born Albert Léopold Clément Marie Meinrad in Brussels, he was the fifth child and second son of Prince Philippe, Count of Flanders, and his wife, Princess Marie of Hohenzollern-Sigmaringen...
in Liège on 13 July 1913 when he is welcome by separatists demonstrations: The socialist and republican newspaper Le Peuple wrote «When, between provincial palate and the Town hall, crowd breaks the police cords protecting the king, the exasperated wallonisants benefit from the distress for to express with the royal family their aspirations of independence. Holding up the Walloon flag with the red cock, they precipitate towards the pram and balance under the nose of the king the new colors». It adds that «while flowers fall from the stages rises the dominating cry “Lives Wallonia!”». Other newspapers as the Gazette de Liège minimized these demonstrations.
During World War I, on 3 May 1918, an informant of the Belgian Embassy in the Netherlands sent this report to this Embassy: As determined by domestic policy, the ruling of the country belongs to a party which leans principally on the Flemish and agricultural regions of Belgium while the Walloon and industrial regions of the country are totally excluded from this running. It is an anormal situation, which is caused by a bad application of the parlementiarism (..) which was already obvious before the war and which will deteriorate. The difference between the Flemish issue and the Walloon issue is that the Flemings are pursuing intellectual and moral goals while the Walloons are demanding the immediate abolition of a situation they consider improper and hurtful. This report was sent to King Albert and his Government in Sainte-Adresse (NPDC)
1915-1929: Brakings and dissensions
The First World WarWorld War I
World War I , which was predominantly called the World War or the Great War from its occurrence until 1939, and the First World War or World War I thereafter, was a major war centred in Europe that began on 28 July 1914 and lasted until 11 November 1918...
revived the patriotism in Belgium, especially after the application of the Flamenpolitik by German occupying forces during the war. Even though the majority of the wallingant and flamingant organizations ceased their activities, a minority of Walloon and Flemish militants collaborated with the Germans. Walloon activism is even more marginal than the Flemish side, but it seemed less handled by the German authorities than this last. At the end of the war, Walloon and Flemish activists will be severely judged but only Flemish activism will be used during the interbellum against flemish revendications since Spring 1919, whereas Walloon activism sinks into oblivion, the French-speaking press and also Wallingant propaganda papers to buckle down to create an image of a “Flandre embochée” (German-friendly Flanders) :
It is true that French-speaking press won't cease to discredit on all flemish by amalgaming it with activists' actions led under the high patronage of the hatred Germany. Indeed, since Spring 1919, press articles begin to associate activism and Flemish Movement; that will create an image of a “Flandre embochée” [...] At the end of the war, walloon activists are judged with the same virulence that their flemish counterparts and for the same reasons. But, once condemned, they disappear from memories; whereas flemish activism is more and more used against flemish revendications.
The experience of World War I and the reviving of Belgian patriotism brake the Walloon Movement that only began to affirm itself few years early, and are a source of division in the Movement. The Walloon Assembly, at that time the standard-bearer of wallingant revendications, adopt a Belgian nationalist position, position opposed to its prime goal. That involves tensions with the more radicals wallingants who then leave the Assembly and its satellites. These tensions arrive at the moment of linguistic law of 31 July 1921 which envisages the constitution of 3 linguistic Regions, two unilingual — one Dutch-speaking and a French-speaking — and one bilingual. Even if in the facts the bilingual communes and of the Dutch-speaking Area and the French-speaking Area become all French-speaking and that the bilingualism of Brussels was also regarded as a victory by the French-speaking people, this law is felt as a threat by the Walloon militants because it blames the experiment up to now unilingual of Wallonia: the law provides indeed that the other language can be used in each linguistic Region. Despite every amendments brought to the law at the Senate, only three walloon deputies on fifty-nine with the Room will vote for it: fifty and one vote against and six abstain from. Since 1920, the Assembly undergoes a large disaffection and loses its more famous names whereas create for themselves dissenting leagues a little everywhere. The Action Committee of the Walloon Assembly in Liege becomes a new Walloon League of Liège and affirms itself more and more since 1923 as the new leader of the movement. This league undertakes then to do a hard work of propaganda: from 1924 to 1930, it organizes seven annual congresses from which is born a new gathering of walloon associations, the Walloon Concentration.
1930-1939: Walloon nationalism reaffirmed
The supremacy of the new Walloon League of Liège and its Walloon Concentration represent this period of radicalization toward 'wallingantism'. The 1930s were a period of radicalization for many reasons: the linguistic law of 1921 stipulating the use of Dutch language in Wallonia, the reciprocal radicalization of the Flemish Movement, and an atmosphere heavy with the birth or consolidation of ideologies such as fascismFascism
Fascism is a radical authoritarian nationalist political ideology. Fascists seek to rejuvenate their nation based on commitment to the national community as an organic entity, in which individuals are bound together in national identity by suprapersonal connections of ancestry, culture, and blood...
, communism
Communism
Communism is a social, political and economic ideology that aims at the establishment of a classless, moneyless, revolutionary and stateless socialist society structured upon common ownership of the means of production...
and Nazism
Nazism
Nazism, the common short form name of National Socialism was the ideology and practice of the Nazi Party and of Nazi Germany...
.
The Walloon Concentration, initiated by the most radicalized factions, organized congresses within the Walloon Concentration. The first congress was organized in Liège on the 27 and 28 of September, 1930, at the occasion of the Centennial of the independence of Belgium. The wish of the organizers was that all trends, both extremist and moderate, should be represented. The congress members all rallied in one intransigent motion: the French identity and integrity of Wallonia and the recognition to Flemish people of their own identity. Their position was total regional unilinguism. They decided that it is within the framework of Belgium, the solution for the Walloon-Flemish disagreement should be found, and a constitutional revision should be created. To this end, they decided to create a commission to work out a project to be presented at the next congress. At this next congress, the commission presented its choice: a federalist project, preferred to a provincialist project more moderated and to a simple separatism. A text of resolution was redesigned, and the unanimity of congress members ratified it, except 9 abstentions mainly from delegates of the Arrondissement of Brussels
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde
Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde is a Belgian electoral and judicial arrondissement in the center of the country, encompassing:* the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region, which coincides...
. This resolution is also the first important text where Christian leftists
Christian Democracy
Christian democracy is a political ideology that seeks to apply Christian principles to public policy. It emerged in nineteenth-century Europe under the influence of conservatism and Catholic social teaching...
were involved, as Élie Baussart.
This returned to the ideas of 1912 and this inversion in the Walloon claimed to the profit of a unilingual Dutch-speaking area came mainly from the fear of the "Flemish islets" — a tool of the Flemish "imperialism" in wallingant speech — in the French-speaking provinces, because the linguistic law of 1921 envisaged the use of Dutch there. Moreover, many Dutch-speakers settle in the South of the country to work, a fact not appreciated by the wallingants because these new populations are often close to the Catholic Party and could call into question the unilinguism of Wallonia, as stated by the liberal François Bovesse:
Walloons! Beware of this aspect of the problem. The prolific Flanders is invading us slowly; if those who come to us and that we welcome fraternally isolate themselves in Flemish linguistic groups, if some fanaticism helps them to not be absorbed, if a blurred administrative legislation in linguistic matters favours this non-absorption, Walloons, beware; in fifty years your land won't be yours any more.
It's hard, it's harsh to "drop" the French of Flanders, it would much harder and more dangerous to sacrifice our linguistic unity.
At the same time, the linguistic law is also regarded as dangerous by Flemish militants because according to them, it contributes to territorial nibbling in favour of the French language. The wallingants then put agreement with the flamingants. On 16 March 1929, wallingant Destrée and flamingant Camille Huysmans
Camille Huysmans
Jean Joseph Camille Huysmans was a Belgian politician.Huymans studied German philology at the University of Liège. He was a teacher from 1893 until 1897...
sign, with 26 other socialist deputies within the P.O.B, the "Compromis des Belges" (Compromise of the Belgians) for the linguistic and cultural homogeneity of the Flanders and Wallonia, leading to the linguistic law of 14 July 1932. It prescribes Dutch as the official language of the Flanders, and French as official language of Wallonia, consciously sacrificing the linguistic rights of the French-speaking people of Flanders.
Other congresses of the Walloon Concentration are organized to the war, as the congress of 1935 during which the militants assert the right for the Walloons to dispose of themselves. Those of 1933 and 1936 are the occasion to affirm the need of an economic collaboration between France and Belgium and to criticize the Belgian foreign policy of neutrality asserting which it is wished by Germany and that a bringing together with France was preferable, position registered in the Francophile tradition of the Walloon movement. The congress of 1937 is the abandonment of the federalist project for confederalism in order to favor a Walloon foreign policy, notoriously pro-French.
The end of the interbellum is also the time of the formation of the first Walloon political parties, for example the Nationalist Walloon Party-French Party and the Democratic Walloon Party both created for the anticipated elections of 2 April 1939. The first one created was the Walloon League of Deux-Houdeng in 1938, following Albert du Bois' rattachist
Rattachism
Rattachisme is a part of the Walloon movement that advocates the unification of Wallonia with France....
thought, but disappeared rapidly. The second, Mahieu's Democratic Walloon Front, transformed into a political party a few weeks before the elections. Without any backup from Walloon associations and with only two important figures with Jules Mahieu and Arille Carlier, this wallingant party got only 10,000 votes in the seven counties where it was present.