In the politics of Belgium, Unionism or Union of Opposites (union des oppositions) is a Belgian political movement that existed from the 1820s to 1846. (In the present day, the term 'unionists' is sometimes used in a Belgian context to describe those who oppose the partition of Belgium, such as members of the Belgische Unie – Union Belge and l’Unie parties.
It existed before and after the Belgian Revolution of 1830 and advocated the union of Roman Catholics and liberals against the policies of William I of the Netherlands. The new nation's motto, L'Union fait la force or unity makes strength, referred to this union rather than to the union of the country's different linguistic communities.
The liberals were initially quite favourable towards the lay policy of William's enlightened absolutism but more and more they changed their attitude, giving less and less importance to their struggle against church influence and more and more importance to political liberties, which William I was obstinately refusing to grant. Those following this new trend were known as 'radical liberals', as opposed to the 'Voltairian liberals' (libéraux voltairiens) who supported the englightened absolutist regime and gave rise to Orangism.
This evolution enabled the 'radical liberals' to make a compromise with the Catholics, who were ready to make certain concessions as to the freedom of the press and freedom of religion in return. From 1825, Étienne de Gerlache made a failed attempt at a compromise and reconciliation. At the end of 1827, in Liège, the Catholic newspaper le Courrier de la Meuse and the liberal newspaper Mathieu Laensbergh underwent a rapprochement. The union was decisively concluded on 8 November 1828 when the liberal Brussels newspaper le Courrier des Pays-Bas rallied to this policy in an article by Louis De Potter.
In the years following the Belgian Revolution, and after the exclusion of the radical democrats and the republicans (including De Potter), the unionist policy was imposed as a necessity in continuing Belgium's independence. Belgium's first cabinets were thus 'unionist', allying the conservative nobility with moderate elements from the rising liberal middle class. This formula allowed the structures of the new state to be consolidated, stable political and judicial institutions to be put in place and accords on centralization, the cities' and provinces' roles and primary education to be signed.
However, dissension between Catholics and liberals became increasingly strong, on questions such as the clergy's role in civil society or the state taking over responsibility for education and public welfare. Unionism was finally ended by the foundation of the Liberal Party in 1846 and the first Liberal Party government the following year. The Catholic party would gradually be created in response and Belgium was ruled by single-party governments from one or other of these two parties until the socialist movement arose and reached power thanks to the institution of universal suffrage in 1948.
Apart from king Leopold, a staunch unionist, a number of Belgian political leaders were of the same opinion, including:
DéFI is a social-liberal and regionalist political party in Belgium mainly known for defending French-speakers' interests in and near the Brussels region. Founded in 1964, the party is led by François De Smet, a member of the Chamber of Representatives. The party's current name, DéFI or Défi, was adopted in 2016 and is a backronym of Démocrate, Fédéraliste, Indépendant meaning "challenge" in French.
Étienne Constantin, Baron de Gerlache was a lawyer and politician in the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, and later became in 1831 the first prime minister of the newly founded Belgian state.
The General Confederation of Liberal Trade Unions of Belgium is the smallest of Belgium's three major trade union federations.
The ten days' campaign was a failed military expedition by the United Kingdom of the Netherlands against the secessionist Kingdom of Belgium between 2 and 12 August 1831. The campaign was an attempt by the Dutch King William I to halt the course of the Belgian Revolution which had broken out in August 1830.
The Catholic Party was a Belgian political party established in 1869 as the Confessional Catholic Party.
The Liberal Party was a Belgian political party that existed from 1846 until 1961, when it became the Party for Freedom and Progress, Partij voor Vrijheid en Vooruitgang/Parti de la Liberté et du Progrès or PVV-PLP, under the leadership of Omer Vanaudenhove.
Édouard Gustave Charles Marie Pecher was a Belgian lawyer and liberal politician. He was president of the Liberal Party from 1921 until 1926.
The Walloon Movement traces its ancestry to 1856 when literary and folkloric movements based around the Society of Walloon language and literature began forming. Despite the formation of the Society of Walloon Literature, it was not until around 1880 that a "Walloon and French-speaking defense movement" appeared, following the linguistic laws of the 1870s. The movement asserted the existence of Wallonia and a Walloon identity while maintaining the defense of the French language.
Émile Edouard Charles Louis Digneffe was a Belgian lawyer, banker, businessman, a Walloon activist and liberal politician.
The history of Freemasonry in Belgium reflects the many influences on what is now Belgium from the neighbouring states.
L'Affranchissement was a rationalist free-thinking association in Belgium, founded in Brussels in 1854. The founding of the association was assisted by political exiles from France. L'Affranchissement was the first organization of its kind in the country. It recruited its followers from artisans, intellectuals and the lower middle classes. The legacy of L'Affranchissement would play an important role in shaping the early Belgian labour movement.
The general strike of 1960–1961, known popularly in Wallonia as the Strike of the Century, was a major series of strikes in Belgium which began on 14 December 1960 and lasted approximately six weeks.
The Belgian strikes of 1886, occasionally known as the social revolt of 1886, was a violent period of industrial strikes and riots in Belgium from 18 to 29 March 1886 and an important moment in Belgium's 19th-century history. The strike or labour revolt was provoked by social inequalities in Belgian society and has compared to the peasant jacqueries of the Middle Ages.
The royal question was a major political crisis in Belgium that lasted from 1945 to 1951, coming to a head between March and August 1950. The question at stake surrounded whether King Leopold III could return to the country and resume his constitutional role amid allegations that his actions during World War II had been contrary to the provisions of the Belgian Constitution. It was eventually resolved by the abdication of Leopold in favour of his son King Baudouin in 1951.
Since 1893, there have been a number of general strikes in Belgium. Occasioned by the emergence of the labour movement and socialism in Belgium, general strikes have been an enduring part of Belgian political life. Originally intended to encourage the reform of the franchise, more recent strikes have focused on issues of wages and opposition to government austerity. Since 1945, general strikes have been co-ordinated by the General Federation of Belgian Labour (ABVV-FGTB), a federation of Socialist trade unions, while most before World War II were organised by the parliamentary Belgian Labour Party (POB-BWP).
The general strike of 1913 was a major general strike in Belgium. It was the third general strike aimed at forcing electoral reform and, like the general strike of 1902, was particularly aimed at ending the system of plural voting. It officially lasted between 14 and 24 April and brought out between 300,000 and 450,000 workers on strike. Despite its large participation, it was relatively peaceful.
An orange–blue coalition is a type of governing coalition in Belgian politics that brings together Liberal parties and Christian democratic/humanist political parties. These coalitions are also termed Blue–Roman, corresponding to the colors of the liberal parties, and the Roman of the Roman Catholic Church for the Christian Democrats.
Josse-Émile van Dievoet was a Flemish politician and lawyer. He served as Belgian Minister of Justice.
The Société des douze was a scholarly and literary dining club in Brussels.
Éliane Gubin is a Belgian historian, researcher and professor of political and social history, specializing in the history of women and feminism. In the late 1980s, she initiated the introduction of women's history at the Université libre de Bruxelles (ULB), where she is professor emerita. She also teaches the history of contemporary Belgium and specializes in social history and political history of the nineteenth century and the first half of the twentieth century, including a re-reading of the World War I. Since 1995, she has been co-director of the Centre d'archives pour l'histoire des femmes.