Regionalist parties in French-speaking Belgium: the Rassemblement Wallon and the Front Démocratique des Francophones

According to Lipset and Rokkan (1967:13-14), the early waves of popular mobilisation in some countries ‘may not have brought the territorial system to the brink of disruption but left an intractable heritage of territorial-cultural conflict’, including ‘the conflict between Flemings and Walloons in Belgium’. It is therefore not surprising that Belgium is often cited as one of the classic examples of societies in which the cleavage between interests of the centre and interests of the periphery caused the rise of regional movements and parties.