The Flemish Negative Case: Explaining the Prevalence of Regionalist Demands without Request for an Independence Referendum

Dodeigne, Jérémy;Niessen, Christoph
(2019) Fédéralisme Régionalisme — Vol. 19 (2019)

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Despite Flanders is often presented as a handbook example of strong regionalism, the organization of a referendum on Flemish independence has never been on the political agenda. This article explains the reasons for the absence of a self-determination referendum in Flanders and shows that, since the 2000s, the omnipresence of the self-rule issue at the top of the political agenda is not – per se – a direct response to regionalist demands of Flemish voters or the Flemish political class. Instead, it is the consociational features of the Belgian political system that enhance intra-community party competition and contribute to the escalade of inter-community conflicts. This mostly explains the deep constitutional crises of the late 2000s and early 2010s. In this context, we can better understand why Flanders independence is supported neither by a majority of the population (9.5 percent), nor its representatives (except those belonging to one of the two regionalist parties, N-VA and VB).
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Dodeigne, J., & Niessen, C. (2019). The Flemish Negative Case: Explaining the Prevalence of Regionalist Demands without Request for an Independence Referendum. Fédéralisme Régionalisme, 19. https://hdl.handle.net/2078.5/124920 (Original work published 2019)