Wallonia

Wallonia (French: Wallonie) or Walloon Region (French: Région Wallonne) is the predominantly French-speaking region that constitutes one of the three federal regions of Belgium, with its capital at Namur. Its official languages are French and German.

Politics

Main article: Politics of Wallonia

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Since 23 April 1993, Belgium is a federal state, geographically split into three Regions and linguistically split into three Communities. The Walloon Region is one of the three regions (southern region, mainly French-speaking, with a population of 3,360,000), the two other regions being the Flemish Region (northern region, mainly Dutch-speaking, with a population of 5,900,000) and the Brussels-Capital Region (officially bilingual French/Dutch but mainly French-speaking, with a population of 980,000).

Related Topics:
Walloon Region - Flemish Region - Brussels-Capital Region

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The Walloon region has a parliament (one chamber with 75 members elected for five years) and a government responsible in front of the parliament.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

The composition of the parliament for the 2004-2009 legislature is as follows:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

• Parti Socialiste (socialist party) : 34
• Mouvement réformateur (liberal democrats, center right) : 20
• Centre démocrate humaniste (former Christian party) : 14
• Front national ("nationalist" party) : 4
• Ecolo (green party) : 3

The head of the government, called Ministre-Président, is Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~