The Union of Francophones (french: Union des Francophones, UF; nl, Unie van Franstaligen) is a political party in Belgium that participates as

electoral list An electoral list is a grouping of candidates for election, usually found in proportional or mixed electoral systems, but also in some plurality electoral systems. An electoral list can be registered by a political party (a party list) or can ...

s in regional,

provincial Provincial may refer to: Government & Administration * Provincial capitals, an administrative sub-national capital of a country * Provincial city (disambiguation) * Provincial minister (disambiguation) * Provincial Secretary, a position in Can ...

, and municipal elections in the Flemish Province of

Flemish Brabant Flemish Brabant ( nl, Vlaams-Brabant ; french: Brabant flamand ) is a province of Flanders, one of the three regions of Belgium. It borders on (clockwise from the North) the Belgian provinces of Antwerp, Limburg, Liège, Walloon Brabant, Haina ...

. As its name suggests, its primary target is the

French French (french: français(e), link=no) may refer to: * Something of, from, or related to France ** French language, which originated in France, and its various dialects and accents ** French people, a nation and ethnic group identified with Franc ...

-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.

History

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,

and Walloon Brabant, leading to the creation of the Union of Francophones in the perspective of the October 1994 provincial elections.

Organization

The UF is a cooperative structure without direct members, run by representatives of 4

-speaking parties, the Reformist Movement (MR), the

Francophone Democratic Federalists French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the la ...

(a member of MR until 25 September 2011), the

Humanist Democratic Centre Humanist Democratic Centre (french: Centre Démocrate Humaniste, CDH) was a Christian democratic and centrist French-speaking political party in Belgium. The party originated in the split in 1972 of the unitary Christian Social Party (PSC-CVP) w ...

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.

Programme

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 French became an international language in the Middle Ages, when the power of the Kingdom of France made it the second international language, alongside Latin. This status continued to grow into the 18th century, by which time French was the l ...

inhabitants, like

Sint-Genesius-Rode Sint-Genesius-Rode (; french: Rhode-Saint-Genèse, ) is a municipality located in Flanders, one of three regions of Belgium, in the province of Flemish Brabant. The municipality comprises the town of Sint-Genesius-Rode only, and lies between Brus ...

, to it and opposes the splitting of the partially bilingual Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral and judicial constituency.

Elected officials

The party currently has one representative in the

Flemish Parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural communi ...

, five in the provincial council of Flemish Brabant and dozens in several municipal councils.

Other French-speaking parties

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 Linkebeek (; ) is a Belgian municipality in Flanders, part of the province of Flemish Brabant, and in the administrative district of Halle-Vilvoorde. The municipality only comprises the town of Linkebeek proper. As of 1 January 2006, Linkebeek ha ...

, Franklin Audag. 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.Ludivine Nolf
Écolo, grande absente de la liste UF en périphérie
La Dernière Heure, May 12, 2009

Electoral performance

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 .

Sources

External links

Official websiteLeaflets and posters of the UF
(2006, 2009, 2012 and 2014), Tractothèque {{Belgian political parties Francophone political parties in Belgium