The Sixties

The Flemish/Walloon conflict over language policy on the one hand, coupled with the economic unbalance between the South and the North of the country on the other, caused a sudden acceleration of political developments in Belgium, beginning in the 60s. The separation took place on several levels:

• administrative: the new language laws of 1962-1963 divided the country into four language zones.
• intellectual: the Francophone faculties in the ancient University city of Leuven were formally shown the door after persistent protests by Flemish student groups.
• media-related: public radio, and thus the entire Belgian media environment, was broken up into Francophone and Flemish entities.
• political: the formerly national political parties divided into independent Francophone and Flemish fractional parties.
• economic: in 1966, per-capita GDP in Flanders exceeded that of Wallonia for the first time.

At the end of the sixties a fundamental state reform was announced, which would replace the structures of the old Belgian nation state with a new federal institutional framework. This would lay the best foundations for a peaceful future, and for good neighbourly relations between the individual language groups.