Yay Wallons!

[Zinneke]

A few points to keep in mind before some people believe they can recycle the same old stereotypes about certain parties and regions :

 - Brussels, a socialist-cdh(-fdf) region, voted in favour of CETA. So clearly there is no party line. My intuition is that it is the agrarian lobby in the Walloon parliament that have asked Paul Magnette - who is as pro-Europe, pro-trade as they come given his publications as an academic - to ensure their subsidies are maintained in negotiations. The agrarian lobby is strong with the junior Cdh coalition partner, not the PS that just wraps up the industrial cities and towns.
 
 - It was the Flemish nationalists in CD&V and Open Vld who decided to devolve trade to the regions, when the Walloons, Brusselaren and most sane constitutionalists in Flanders thought it made no sense given we do (or should do) all this through the EU anyway. Most have predicted that this type of situation would arrive, Guy verhofstadt being a notable example, but was ignored.

 - It is a well known political trend that when parties of both sides of the spectrum are in some form of government, the extremes tend to do well. As it stands the PS are in government in Wallonia, and their MR rivals have propped up a right-wing government on the federal level. As a result, yes, the communists are high in the polls and are putting pressure on the Walloon PS. But there are structural explanations for this relating to Wallonia's history, being one of the poorest regions in Western Europe, and the PS-MR being in a weird relationship of both being in government yet opposed to each other.

[Zinneke]

http://www.rtbf.be/info/belgique/detail_ceta-il-faut-savoir-si-une-region-souhaite-que-la-belgique-s-isole-completement?id=9434233

So, apparently after the meeting the Minister-President of Wallonia, things have been settled and it looks like its going through. Im wondering how the Treaty has been changed to accomodate the agricultural lobby's demands, if at all.

I hope these free trade deals are rethought in future. It just supplements an ordro-liberal, or institutional liberal system that favours the lawyer-class (i.e the politicians too, who all seem to have law degrees these days) rather than the petit bourgeois class. I mean, already most of EU trade law is only applicable in cross-border situations, and while some progressive lawyers try to extend the defenition as much as they can, it seems the only people who benefit from the trade rights are the cross-border. The same will happen with the CETA legislation.

But small business owners and independents will continue to vote for MR, so you reap what you sow I guess.

[Zinneke]

Amazing debate here guys.

"Yay Wallonia"
"Stupid Wallonia"

You wonder why there was never a debate over bilateral trade deal before...

[Zinneke]

I hope they will become french in the future

Please, please take Brussels too.

Thx,
Dave

Your friends at Voorpost would not like that though, would they?
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=eeXDl4bVDRw

[Zinneke]

Friends...? Classy, calling a Jew a Nazi. If anything, Voorpost being opposed to it is actually another amazing argument for giving it away

Oh come on Mr. AfD sympathiser (lol), i was pulling your leg.

On the subject of CETA-TTIP, my old commune in Brussels, Saint-Gilles declared itself an anti-free trade zone before it was cool. Take that Wallonia!

https://euobserver.com/beyond-brussels/129510

[Zinneke]

Wow, the Walloons have heeled as if they are Bernie Sanders. Great news!

You realise the paralels between Walloon action on CETA and NL action on Ukraine are strong, right?