Nicolas Brenninkmeijer’s review of the Belgian region of Wallonia’s economic decline in the second half of the 20th century highlights how Belgium’s federalised political structure granted Wallonia’s Parti Socialiste immense control over regional policymaking. Brenninkmeijer argues that it is their policies, most notably the Spitaels Plan, that led to the region’s decline relative to Flanders.
Since Belgium’s independence in 1830, the country has grappled with conflicts along linguistic, religious, and economic lines, dividing Flanders, a Dutch-speaking, traditionally Catholic region, from Wallonia, a French-speaking, more socialist region.
Wallonia, once among Europe’s most prosperous regions, owed its economic vitality to an innovative steel industry fuelled by abundant coal reserves. However, this prosperity dwindled with the global economic shift of the 1970s. Liège and the Hainaut, formerly industrial hubs, today rank lowest in Belgian indices for economic and development indicators. In contrast, neighbouring Flanders has thrived, highlighting a divergence influenced by economic factors, cultural tensions, and a unique political economy.
HDI figures since 1990 (Table 1) show a widening gap between the former Walloon industrial heartland and neighbouring Flemish regions. This suggests that the second-order impacts of divergence have manifested themselves in social well-being indicators. The Hainaut is still Belgium’s least-developed region, and the gap with Flanders has not converged. Life expectancy in the Hainaut is two years below the Belgian average, while life expectancy in Limburg, Flanders’ former coal mining heartland, has caught up with more prosperous Flemish regions since 1990. Liège, which sits just across the linguistic divide, also continues to lag.
Table 1: Human Development Index
Source: “Subnational HDI (v7.0),” Global Data Lab, accessed 19 July 2023, Sub-national HDI – Subnational HDI – Table – Global Data Lab.
The linguistic divide is also unmistakably depicted in the map below (Figure 1) which shows municipal unemployment rates like a red scar stretching from Liège to Tournai across the former industrial heartland. Charleroi, once the epicentre of the coal industry and the largest city in the Hainaut, had an unemployment rate of 26%, and its suburbs all had rates higher than 20%. This compares with single-digit rates across the border in East Flanders.
2013 Unemployement Rate
Source: “Third Atlas of Belgium: Economic Activity,” Atlas Commission, Kotholieke Universiteit Leuven and Université de Liège, accessed 19 July 2023, https://resultatselection.belgium.be/fr Atlas of Belgium – Indicators: maps, data and charts (atlas-belgique. be)
Politics shaping destinies
Federalisation, characterised by regional political autonomy, is at the root of this regional divergence. Regional parliaments in Wallonia and Flanders have a large say in the destinies of their regions. Policies enacted by the regional Flemish and Walloon governments diverged significantly in alignment with the ideologies of distinct political parties controlling the regions.
The notion that federalization was the remedy to deep cultural divides resonated strongly with the electorate in both Wallonia and Flanders, albeit for different reasons. The Walloon Parti Socialiste used this sentiment to accumulate more state power. It enjoyed an unprecedented, uninterrupted eighty-year reign in the provinces of Liège and the Hainaut. (See Table 2).
Table 2: Timeline of Parti Socialiste Victories
Source: “Résultats électoraux,” Service public fédéral Intérieur, Directions des élections, accessed 19 July 2023, https://resultatselection.belgium.be/fr, Résultats électoraux (belgium.be).
A pivotal policy initiative linked to federalization was the Parti Socialiste’s 1978 Spitaels Plan. Three core tenets defined the plan: substantial subsidies for uncompetitive industries, a drastic expansion of the public sector, and incentives for early retirement among displaced industrial workers.
The Spitaels Plan granted considerable power to the autonomous regional political bodies. They wielded control over substantial resources and directed them toward industries and municipalities thought deserving. In Wallonia, this translated to substantial subsidies for struggling coal mines and outdated steel industries. In Flanders, funds went towards innovative infrastructure projects linking it to the North Sea. In essence, Wallonia invested in protecting its older industrial base, while Flanders invested in potential future trade growth.
The Parti Socialiste promoted early retirement and widespread public sector employment. They framed these policies as measures to safeguard unemployed labourers in the industrial heartland. However, these policies are thought to have contributed to persistent disparities in labour force participation rates. The temporary expansion of the public sector also served to bolster employment in regions formerly reliant on heavy industry.
By 1996 Wallonia’s public sector still accounted for 40% of employment, compared to 25% in Flanders. Party manifestos from this era advocated for preferential treatment for coal miners in public sector hiring processes and advocated for streamlined administrative procedures for accessing pension benefits. In 1980 the goal was to recruit seventy thousand new civil servants and distribute the equivalent of three billion Euros to entitlements and early retirement schemes, underscoring the plan’s substantial scale.
Conclusion
In search of a scapegoat, a 1985 Parti Socialiste manifesto contended that the Flemish-dominated central state deliberately depressed wages to bolster the profitability of capitalist enterprises. Party manifestos in 2004 and 2019 similarly expressed an opposition to Flander’s neoliberalism, while acknowledging a gap in living standards between the two regions. The party called for more federalisation and a doubling down of its heavy-handed economic interventionalist approach.
Unwavering in their faith in their party’s policies, or unable to let go of the power federalism has granted their party, leaders of the Parti Socialiste have made Wallonia into the ‘other Belgium’, the less educated, healthy, and affluent neighbour of Flanders.
Source photo: Rookje Meijerink,“De fabrieken gaan failliet, in Charleroi” CC BY-NC-ND 2.0 Deed
“De fabrieken gaan failliet, in Charleroi”
