Belgische Unie – Union Belge ( Dutch and French for Belgian Union), known by the acronym BUB, is a small

political party A political party is an organization that coordinates candidates to compete in a particular area's elections. It is common for the members of a party to hold similar ideas about politics, and parties may promote specific political ideology, ...

Belgium Belgium, officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. Situated in a coastal lowland region known as the Low Countries, it is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeas ...

. It describes itself as "The Centrist Party for a United Belgium". As one of the only political parties organised across the entire country, it wishes to abolish the federal system in Belgium and re-establish a

unitary state A unitary state is a (Sovereign state, sovereign) State (polity), state governed as a single entity in which the central government is the supreme authority. The central government may create or abolish administrative divisions (sub-national or ...

based on the original nine provinces. The party is explicitly opposed to

separatism Separatism is the advocacy of cultural, ethnic, tribal, religious, racial, regional, governmental, or gender separation from the larger group. As with secession, separatism conventionally refers to full political separation. Groups simply seekin ...

and the

partition of Belgium The partition of Belgium is a hypothetical situation, which has been discussed by both Belgian and international media, envisioning a split of Belgium along linguistic divisions, with the Flemish Community (Flanders) and the French-speaking Comm ...

Ideology

The party promotes reconciliation between Belgium's language groups (the Dutch- and French-speaking communities), promoting

multilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

, and centralisation by one government and parliament. They propose the abolition of the three Belgian Regions and transfer their powers back to the federal state of Belgium and the

provinces A province is an administrative division within a country or state. The term derives from the ancient Roman , which was the major territorial and administrative unit of the Roman Empire's territorial possessions outside Italy. The term ''provi ...

. They are the only party with this outlook, as all other Belgian parties except for the

Workers' Party of Belgium The Workers' Party of Belgium (PTB-PVDA) is a Marxist and socialist political party in Belgium. It is the only Belgian party represented in parliament that is a fully national party, representing both Flanders and Wallonia. Having historically be ...

(PVDA/PTB), Left Socialist Party, and minor liberal grouping "Vivant" have, together with the creation of the federal states, been split on a language basis.

Representation

The BUB has no elected seats at any level and operates only on the margins of Belgian politics. The party got 10,000 votes in the 2003 federal elections and 13,000 votes in the 2004 regional elections. The votes were concentrated in the northern provinces, in the central constituencies of Brabant and Brussels and in 2003 also in the southern province of

Namur Namur (; ; ) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is the capital both of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namur stands at the confl ...

. Though the party did not gain any seats in the 2006 communal elections, BUB did far better at the ballots, gaining up to 2% of the vote in some cities. In the federal elections of 10 June 2007, the pro-Belgian party also progressed everywhere it participated but again obtained no seats. At the 2010 federal elections, the party formed a pro-Belgian cartel with CDF under the name BELG-UNIE and obtained a record result of 20.000 votes in 5 constituencies. Since 22 June 2011, the cartel consists of a third pro-Belgian party, the BAB. The party is headed by a national president (Hans Van de Cauter) and is divided into 9 provincial sections, corresponding with the 9 provinces that existed before the split of the central

province of Brabant The Province of Brabant (, ; ) was a province in Belgium from 1830 to 1995. It was created in 1815 as South Brabant, part of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. In 1995, it was split into the Dutch-speaking Flemish Brabant, the French-speaki ...

in 1995. The party is member of International Monarchist Conference.

Election results

Chamber of Representatives

References

External links

*Official web site: http://www.belgischeunie.be or http://www.unionbelge.be. {{DEFAULTSORT:Belgische Unie - Union Belge Political parties in Belgium Belgian nationalism