Successful or Not? Now, Sympathy From Brussels
According Michael Keating, John Loughlin, Kris Deschouwer in 2003: The "single French culture" is still the official discourse, and is defended by the French community authorities (...) The Walloon movement of today, supported by a small number of intellectual elites, defends very much the typical Walloon difference, but has not been able to moblise for it.
In December 2006, a Brussels manifesto was published partly in the same spirit as the Walloon manifesto, claiming a regionalisation (in favour of Brussels as well in favour of Wallonia), of the French Community. It was also signed by key figures of Brussels as for instance the philosophers Philippe van Parijs and Jean-Marc Ferry, so that the Brussels manifesto has given the Walloon “regionalists" an opportunity to remind everyone that they have been calling for an end to the French-speaking Community and the transfer of its powers, especially its responsibilities for education and culture, to the Walloon Region since their 1983 "Manifesto for Walloon culture"
Benoît Lechat summarized the issue:
Although the cultural aspect was already present in the “renardisme”, it was with the Manifeste pour la culture wallonne that culture truly became a priority within the Walloon culture. Conversely, some defenders of the French-speaking community have supported the idea of a fusion between the Walloon Region and the French-speaking Community. It’s the argument of the “French-speaking Nation” defended at the time by the president of the PRL, Jean Gol, and others who blamed the regionalists of “falling back on" a Walloon identity. Recently a Brussels regionalism has arisen, in particular through the association “Manifesto” which advocates the development of educational and cultural policies adapted to the needs of the Brussels Region. The Walloon and Brussels regionalists privilege an institutional system based on three Regions with equal levels of autonomy and power. The Flemish movement has always preferred a system composed of two main regions, Flanders and Wallonia, for the joint rule of the Brussels Region. —The conclusion of the Manifesto for Wallon culture was: All those who live and work in the Walloon region are undeniably part of Wallonia. All respectable human ideas and beliefs are also part of Wallonia (...) Being a straightforward community of human beings, Wallonia wishes to emerge as an appropriate entity which opens itself to the entire world.
Read more about this topic: Manifesto For Walloon Culture
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