The leader of DéFI, Francois de Smet, has used today's French Community of Belgium Day to accuse three major parties of holding secret discussions to further dismantle the French Community Government – also known as the Wallonia-Brussels Federation (FWB).
DéFI is a new iteration of a party founded to defend the interests of Francophones in the 1960s, set up in response to the 1962 law which set official languages per region in Belgium. Today, the party is considered to be on the liberal centre-right of the political spectrum, but the party has not forgotten its pro-Francophone roots.
In a statement, leader De Smet has alleged that the Socialist Party, MR and French-speaking Greens are currently in secret discussions to move certain competencies away from the FWB and to the Brussels and Wallonia Regions.
"Discussions are said to be underway between the three main French-speaking parties - PS, MR and Ecolo – with a view to unravelling some of the powers of the Wallonia-Brussels Federation, excluding education and culture, in favour of the Regions," the DéFI leader said.
'More disorder, more competition'
The FWB, which constitutes one of the six governments of Belgium, caters to the Francophone community of Belgium. It has authority in the "soft" fields of education, culture, sport, youth and scientific research in both Brussels and Wallonia.
On Wednesday DéFI accused fellow Francophone parties to be secretly planning to move health, early childhood, youth support, sport and audiovisual services to the Brussels and Wallonia regions.
"Transferring these matters to the Regions would go against the grain of history: Francophones need greater unity and efficiency," De Smet said in a statement. He warns that moving competencies will create "more disorder, more competition between entities, more administrative difficulties and more costs for the community."
DéFI believes the move will ultimately threaten the viability of jobs – as it would affect the mobility of workers between Wallonia and Brussels, which they believe "is a strength". The party also suggests that the move could undermine the linguistic integrity of the FWB, with little financial gain as setting up new administrations would be costly.
Ultimately, DéFI wants to strengthen the Francophone institution, not weaken it. Speaking at an event in Uccle on the issue on Tuesday, DéFI councillor for Beersel Maxime Timmerman said that the "300,000 French-speaking citizens living in Flanders also deserve to be heard."
