Politics of Wallonia

The Politics of Wallonia concern not only the government of the region of Wallonia, but also that of the French Community of Belgium, the German-speaking Community of Belgium and the Brussels-Capital Region.

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Since 23 April, 1993, Belgium has been a federal state, divided into three geographical regions and three linguistic communities. The Walloon Region is one of the three regions, mainly French-speaking. The other two geographical regions are the Flemish Region, a mainly Dutch-speaking region in the north and west, and the Brussels-Capital, bilingual French-Dutch administering the city of Brussels. Some governmental competencies are exercised by the linguistic communities, of which the French community of Belgium is the largest in Wallonia, while the German-speaking community of Belgium's responsibilities are for an area within Wallonia.

The Parliament of Wallonia is a unicameral legislature of 75 members elected to serve five-year terms. It is based in the former Hospice Saint-Gilles at Namur.

The Government of Wallonia is responsible to the Parliament. Excepting cultural and education matters, which are controlled by the linguistic communities, the Walloon Region's competences include local administration, housing, transport, training, employment, health and social policy. The region administers a number of companies, including those responsible for the provision of water and public transport.

Parliament

The directly-elected Walloon Parliament was created in June 1995, replacing the "Conseil régional wallon" (Regional Council of Wallonia). This first sat on 15 October, 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives and the Belgian Senate elected from Wallonia.

The composition of the parliament for the 2004-2009 legislature is as follows:
* Parti Socialiste (PS) : 34
* Mouvement réformateur (MR) : 20
* Centre démocrate humaniste (CDh) : 14
* Front national (FN) : 4
* Ecolo : 3

The president of the parliament is José Happart (PS), the Vice-Presidents are Véronique Cornet (MR), Michel Lebrun (CDh) and Charles Janssens (PS).

The 75 members of the parliament, together with 19 French-speaking members elected by the parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, form the Parliament of the French-Speaking community of Belgium. Since 1999 elections have been held together with those for the European Parliament.

Government

Michel Daerden, Marie Arena and Marie-Dominique Simonet also serve in the government of the Brussels-Capital Region.

References

ee also

* Science and technology in Wallonia

External links

* [http://www.wallonie.be/en/home.shtml Wallonia Portal]
* [http://gov.wallonie.be/code/fr/hp.asp Government of Wallonia]
* [http://parlement.wallonie.be/content/default.php Parliament of Wallonia]
* [http://www.pcf.be/ Parliament of the French-Speaking Community]