A society of tolerance and solidarity, gathered around a ‘socio-liberal’ consensus: according to Marc Jacquemain, such is the framework which seems to best characterise contemporary Walloon identity, in the light of the opinion surveys carried out over the last twenty years. His analysis nevertheless comes with a warning: for at least two reasons this consensus risks being weakened.
![COVER Identité wallonne]( "COVER Identité wallonne.")
As the starting point of his argument, Marc Jacquemain, a Professor at the University of Liège’s Institute for Human and Social Sciences, cites the results of an opinion poll, published in La Libre Belgique, on the feelings of belonging expressed by Belgians: 44% of the people questioned defined themselves ‘first of all’ as Belgian, 26% as Flemish, 4% as Walloon, 11% as European and 11% as ‘citizens of the world.’ Knowing that in Belgian there are around 60% Dutch speakers and 40% francophones, we could conclude that 45% of Dutch speakers define themselves as first of all Flemish and that 10% of francophones define themselves first of all as Walloons. This backs up a widespread idea concerning Belgium: there exists a Flemish identity, there exists a Belgian identity; a Walloon identity does not really exist.
But, observes the author in an article published in a collective work which has just come out (1), this reasoning rests entirely on a little phrase contained in the question asked, and which causes a problem: the phrase ‘first of all.’ It means that the question measures a ‘priority’. But it tells us nothing about the intensity of this priority. ‘One might think that Walloon identity in its entirety is concealed within this blind spot,’ suggests Marc Jacquemain.
In support of his reasoning he evokes a symbol, ‘particularly expressive of Walloon identity,’ which decorates a window close to his home: in it two superimposed flags show a Walloon cockerel on the background of the Belgian tricolour flag. ‘The heart of Walloon identity is there,’ argues the author. ‘It is not an identity with exclusive or even hegemonic pretensions. It is an identity which lives in symbiosis with Belgian identity: overwhelmingly, in Wallonia, people are Walloon and Belgian, at a time where an increasing number of the population in the north of the country feels Flemish rather than Belgian.’ This explains why Flemish identity is expressed differently, with an intense thirst for symbols and affirmation, as a never satisfied demand for recognition.
If Walloons are asked the question ‘do you feel Walloon or Belgian first of all?,’ they should at least be allowed the possibility of answering ‘both at the same time.’ Yet the manner in which the question is set very strongly influences the response obtained. And the feelings of belonging to such or such an entity are not necessarily in competition: expressing ‘priorities’ is not peoples’ natural reflex.
There are other ways of asking the question, and that is what has been done by the ULg’s ‘Centre d’Etude de l’Opinion’ (CLEO) over eight investigations carried out between 1988 and 2007. Rather than demanding preferences, they tried to discover, in an independent manner, to what extent the Walloons feel a sense of belonging to Belgium, to their region, to Europe. And the result, in the vast majority of surveys is that the more people feel Walloon the more they feel Belgian. In such a context, ‘what is a priority’ is strongly relativised because the belongings are felt as complementary, and not competing. And, from year to year, this complementarity of identities is widely dominant in every strata of the Walloon population, apart from a few subtle differences, sums up Marc Jacquemain.
