Union des Francophones

The Union of Francophones (French: Union des Francophones, pronounced [ynjɔ̃ de fʁɑ̃kɔfɔn], UF) is a political party in Belgium that participates as electoral lists in regional, provincial, and municipal elections in the Flemish Province of Flemish Brabant. As its name suggests, its primary target is the French-speaking community of Flemish Brabant and particularly those who live in the officially Dutch-speaking area Halle-Vilvoorde including the now predominantly French-speaking municipalities with language facilities in the Brussels Periphery. Its main goal is to provide both constitutional exemptions for and privileges to Francophones living in Dutch-speaking Flanders, for example by annexing the municipalities with language facilities to the officially bilingual Brussels-Capital Region.

Union of Francophones
Union des Francophones
Chairman4 co-chairmen
FoundedOctober 1998
IdeologyRegionalism[1]
Francophone minority interests[1]
Flemish Parliament
0 / 124
Flemish Provincial Councils
2 / 175
Website
www.uniondesfrancophones.be

History

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In the 1980s the Groupement des francophones de la Périphérie (GFP) was created, grouping French-speaking elected officials from the Flemish communes of the Brabant province. In 1994 the province of Brabant was divided into the Brussels-Capital Region, Flemish Brabant and Walloon Brabant, leading to the creation of the Union of Francophones in the perspective of the October 1994 provincial elections.

Organization

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The UF is a cooperative structure without direct members, run by representatives of 4 French-speaking parties, the Reformist Movement (MR), the Francophone Democratic Federalists (a member of MR until 25 September 2011), the Humanist Democratic Centre and the Socialist Party, plus the elected officials at the regional and provincial levels, and the burgomasters. Its general assembly groups all French-speaking elected officials in the Flemish Brabant.[2]

Programme

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As a heterogenous multi-party coalition, the UF doesn't follow a specific ideological point of view. However, reflecting the social composition of the population in these rather privileged suburbs, most of the elected officials belong to the centre-right Reform Movement. The coalition wants an enlargement of the bilingual Brussels Capital Region through the merger of various municipalities with language facilities with a large percentage of Francophone inhabitants, like Sint-Genesius-Rode, to it and opposes the splitting of the partially bilingual Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral and judicial constituency.

Elected officials

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The party currently has no representatives in the Flemish Parliament, two in the provincial council of Flemish Brabant and dozens in several municipal councils.

Other French-speaking parties

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For the first time the Francophone green party Ecolo took part in some UF lists at the municipal level for the 2006 elections, only in municipalities with language facilities, and got several candidates elected, including an alderman (échevin) in Linkebeek, Franklin Audag.[3] Beforehand the party had always chosen to support the lists of its Flemish counterpart Groen!, with or without the inclusion of an Ecolo candidate. But the party refused to take part in the UF list for the Flemish regional elections in 2009.[4]

Electoral performance

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The following table lists the municipalities bordering the Brussels Region and/or bordering one of the six Flemish municipalities with language facilities for French speakers (marked with [F]).

Municipality 2012 provincial council 2014 Flemish Parliament 2018 provincial council 2019 Flemish Parliament
Votes % Votes % Votes % Votes %
Asse 688 3.6% 453 2.36% 485 2.5% 393 2%
Beersel 3,013 20.4% 2,287 15.40% 2,259 15.2% 1,898 12.8%
Dilbeek 3,083 12.2% 2,004 7.92% 2,655 10.3% 1,570 6.1%
Drogenbos [F] 1,348 55.9% 1,069 45.72% 1,224 50.3% 906 38.1%
Grimbergen 2,491 11.3% 1,499 6.87% 1,604 7.3% 1,057 4.8%
Halle 1,077 4.7% 564 2.44% 662 2.8% 437 1.8%
Hoeilaart 818 13.8% 541 9.06% 417 6.6% 305 4.8%
Kraainem [F] 3,979 64.1% 2,949 50.48% 3,010 52.2% 2,780 46.3%
Linkebeek [F] 1,785 65.8% 1,519 56.87% 1,398 53.1% 1,225 46.2%
Machelen 568 7.4% 370 4.80% 309 3.9% 287 3.6%
Meise 753 6.1% 558 4.49% 516 4.2% 437 3.5%
Merchtem 110 1% 95 0.87% 108 1% 91 0.8%
Overijse 2,710 20.7% 1,826 13.65% 1,578 11.6% 1,292 9.3%
Sint-Genesius-Rode [F] 5,208 54% 4,014 42.21% 4,433 46.9% 4,088 42.1%
Sint-Pieters-Leeuw 3,602 19.6% 2,712 14.78% 2,802 15.2% 2,000 10.9%
Tervuren 1,518 14% 1,256 11.48% 1,171 10.3% 904 7.9%
Vilvoorde 2,512 11.5% 1,669 7.60% 2,001 8.5% 1,101 4.8%
Wemmel [F] 2,950 34.6% 2,246 26.17% 2,309 28% 1581 19.3%
Wezembeek-Oppem [F] 4,497 63.3% 3,058 45.90% 3,708 54.2% 2,907 42.9
Zaventem 3,452 20.7% 2,456 14.97% 3,145 18.5% 2,173 13%
Entire province of Flemish Brabant 48,920 7.1% 34,741 5.01% 38,115 5.4% 28,804 4.1%

Sources

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  1. ^ a b Nordsieck, Wolfram (2019). "Flanders/Belgium". Parties and Elections in Europe. Retrieved 2019-05-30.
  2. ^ L’Union des Francophones (UF) de la Province du Brabant flamand Archived 2009-05-11 at the Wayback Machine, on the UF website
  3. ^ B.D., Périphérie: l'UF fait la force, Tribune de Bruxelles, October 12, 2006
  4. ^ Ludivine Nolf, Écolo, grande absente de la liste UF en périphérie, La Dernière Heure, May 12, 2009
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