Parliament
The directly elected Walloon Parliament was created in June 1995, replacing the Conseil régional wallon (Regional Council of Wallonia). This first sat on 15 October 1980 and was composed of members of the Belgian Chamber of People's Representatives and the Belgian Senate elected from Wallonia.
The composition of the parliament for the 2004-2009 legislature was as follows:
- Parti Socialiste (PS) : 34
- Mouvement réformateur (MR) : 20
- Centre démocrate humaniste (CDh) : 14
- Front national (FN) : 4
- Ecolo : 3
The president of the parliament was José Happart (PS), the Vice-Presidents were Véronique Cornet (MR), Michel Lebrun (CDh) and Charles Janssens (PS).
The composition of the parliament for the 2009-2014 legislature is as follows:
- Parti Socialiste (PS) : 29
- Mouvement réformateur (MR) : 19
- Ecolo : 14
- Centre démocrate humaniste (CDh) : 13
The president of the parliament is Emily Hoyos.
The new coalition government is gathering the PS, the CDH and Ecolo and has the same minister-president.
The 75 members of the parliament, together with 19 French-speaking members elected by the Parliament of the Brussels-Capital Region, form the Parliament of the French Community. Since 1999 elections have been held together with those for the European Parliament.
Read more about this topic: Politics Of Wallonia
Famous quotes containing the word parliament:
“What is the historical function of Parliament in this country? It is to prevent the Government from governing.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)
“A Parliament is that to the Commonwealth which the soul is to the body.... It behoves us therefore to keep the facility of that soul from distemper.”
—John Pym (1584–1643)
“Undershaft: Alcohol is a very necessary article. It heals the sick—Barbara: It does nothing of the sort. Undershaft: Well, it assists the doctor: that is perhaps a less questionable way of putting it. It makes life bearable to millions of people who could not endure their existence if they were quite sober. It enables Parliament to do things at eleven at night that no sane person would do at eleven in the morning.”
—George Bernard Shaw (1856–1950)