Last modified: 2005-04-23 by ivan sache
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![[Flag of Wallonia]](../images/b/be-wal.gif)
by Mark Sensen
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The French Community (Communauté Française) is competent in the Walloon provinces (excepted the German-speaking municipalities) and in Brussels.
The legislative power is exercized by the Council and the
Government. The legislative assembly, the Council of the French
Community (Conseil de la Communauté Française), has 94 members, i.e., the 75 members of the Council of the
Walloon Region (Conseil de la Région Wallonne) and 19 French-speaking members of the Council of the Region of Brussels-Capital.
The Council of the French Community delegates ten of its members to
the Senate.
The Council shall vote the French-speaking communitary laws.
The Government of the French Community exercizes the executive power. It is made of no more than eight Ministers, including the Minister-President. At least one of the Ministers shall live in the Region of Brussels-Capital.
The Walloon Region (Région Wallonne) has a legislative assembly, the Council of the Walloon Region (Conseil de la Région Wallonne), also called Walloon Regional Council (Conseil Régional Wallon). The 75 members
of the assembly are elected by direct universal suffrage for five
years.
The members of the assembly shall vote the regional laws.
They also exercize control on the Walloon Government.
The 75 members of the Walloon Regional Council are also members of
the Council of the French Community (Conseil de la Communauté Française), along with the 19 French-speaking members of the Council of the Region of
Brussels-Capital.
The executive power is exercized by the Walloon Government. The Government shall have no more than nine members, including the Minister-President. The ministers may also be ministers of the Government of the French Community.
Ivan Sache, 13 July 2001
The flag of Wallonia is yellow with a red rooster. The rooster lifts one of his legs, and faces the hoist. It shows the kinship of the Walloons to the French (Gallic) rooster, which is singing, head up and beak open.
Initially, the flag should have been decorated with a cravate of the Belgian colours, with the dates 1830 and 1912. This was intended to show that the Walloon Movement was not anti-Belgian. The cravate rapidly disappeared.
In Wallonia, the flag is nicknamed le coq hardi.
Source: M. Lupant [lup98]
Pascal Vagnat, 29 November 1995
In the beginning of the XXth century, the Walloon Assembly decided to
adopt an emblem for Wallonia. Several symbols were proposed, including
the perron of Liège, a
star, a rooster, a lark, a bull, a wildboar, a squirrel... The pun on
the Latin name of the rooster (gallus) and of the inhabitant of Gaul
(Gallus) was already popular.
The Walloon Assembly decreed:
La Wallonie adopte le coq rouge sur fond jaune, cravate aux couleurs nationales belges. L'histoire glorieuse de la Principaute de Liège, faite de luttes pour les libertés (Charte de Huy, Paix de Fexhe, perron, déclaration des droits de l'homme du Congrès de Polleur...) inspire les couleurs, le cri et la devise: le coq hardi de gueules sur or, avec le cri 'Liberté' et la devise 'Wallon toujours!'Wallonia shall adopt [as its emblem] the red rooster on a yellow backgroung, with a cravate of the Belgian national colours. The glorious history of the principality of Liège, made of struggle for freedom (Chart of Huy, Peace of Fexhe, perron, declaration of the human rights by the congress of Polleur...) inspires the colours, the [war] cry and the motto: or the coq hardi gules, with the cry 'Freedom' and the motto 'Walloon forever!'.
Paul Pastur asked the painter Pierre Paulus to design the emblem. Paulus' design was adopted on 3 July 1913 by an artistic commission. The emblem was officially recognized on 28 July 1975 by a decree of the Conseil culturel de la Communauté Française and further on 15 July 1998 by a decree of the Parlement Wallon.
Source: Official website of the Walloon Region
The flag of Wallonia is shown on the Flags of Aspirant Peoples chart [eba94], #71, with the following caption:
WALLONIA (WALLONIE)
Francophons (Walloons)
South Belgium
However, the Walloons with strong separatist feelings do not necessarily recognize this flag. There are rattachistes Walloons, who promote the incorporation of Walloonia into
France and campaign with a Tricolore French flag charged with the coq
hardi in the middle.
There are, moreover, independentist Walloons who don't want to hear
anything from France and consider the coq hardi as a coq collabo.
Here collabo, a short form of collaborateur, directly refers to the
French (and I suppose to Belgians, too), which collaborated with the
Germans during the Second World War.
Ivan Sache & Jan Mertens, 19 June 2004
The French Community officially adopted the Walloon flag as its flag in 1991.
The flag of the French Community shall be flown on 27 September (French Community day) on the public buildings of the Walloon Region. It shall also be flown on the official buildings in the same conditions and on the same days as the Belgian national flag. In the bilingual Region of Brussels-Capital, the flag shall be flown on 27 September on the public buildings which exclusively belong to the French Community.
Pascal Vagnat, 17 May 1996
The Wallon Region has adopted its flag and
coat of arms on 23 July 1998. The flag is the Wallon flag, therefore the same as
the flag of the French Community; the two entities also share the same coat of arms. The authorities of the two entities can use the same car flag. Only the seal is slightly
different, with the writing RÉGION
WALLONNE for the Walloon Region.
The Walloon Parliament has also adopted an anthem called Le chant des
Wallons (The Walloons' Song).
Source: Moniteur Belge/Belgisch Stattsblad of 8 August 1998
Pascal Vagnat, 13 October 1998
A cultural exhibition entitled Au Chant du Coq (At Cockcrow) took place from 30 January to 14 March 2004 in the "Forum" hall set up in the former colliery of Le Bois du Cazier in Marcinelle.
On 8 August 1956, a fire broke out in the coal mine of Le Bois du Cazier and spread to all the levels of the mine. The rescuers could reach the deepest level only on 23 August. Their first words were Tutti cadaveri! (Italian for "All corpses'"). There were 262 miners killed, including 136 Italians and 95 Belgians. The consequences of the disaster were the arrest of Italian immigration to Belgium and adoption of strict security rules in Belgian mines. The accident in Le Bois du Cazier was the worst disaster ever in Belgian collieries. Pictures of the crowd of miners' families waiting for days near the gates of the mine are probably the strongest evidence of the disaster.
It was decided to preserve the aerial parts of the colliery as a cultural center, including three sections, the Museum of Industry, relating how Belgium joined the industrial revolution at the end of the XIXth century and became one of the most important industrial countries in the world, the 8 August 1956 Gallery, a tribute to the disaster and its victims, and a "Forum" hall dedicated to cultural events and temporary exhibitions.
A temporary exhibition deals with all the aspects of the cock, especially in the Wallon culture. Living cocks are shown, as well as weather vanes and paintings. There is a section dedicated to the Coq hardi, the emblem of Wallonia. The exhibition was introduced in the TV magazine Télétourisme (RTBF / TV5) and its organizer gave interesting details on the choice of the cock as the Walloon symbol and the evolution of his design.
There is (was?) also a brief presentation of the exhibition on the website of the museum, mentioning an illustrated catalog of the exhibition (40 Euros).
Ivan Sache, 28 February 2004
![[Flag of F.R.A.N.C.E.]](../images/b/be}walra.gif)
by Mark Sensen
The website of the party F.R.A.N.C.E. says:
[The party] flag is the red Walloon rooster in the white of the French flag (flag created by the Walloon Movement for the Return to France (1986) and which became, by usage, the flag of the rattachistes).
Mark Sensen, 19 June 2004