Socialist Party (francophone Belgium)

Encyclopedia : S : SO : SOC : Socialist Party (francophone Belgium)

The Parti Socialiste or PS of Belgium is a French-speaking social democratic political party. It is the dominant party in Wallonia, supported by the urban working class, and is led by Elio Di Rupo. In Brussels, it has recently performed head-to-head with the MR liberals. This party is nearly always part of the governing coalition, and dominates most local authorities because of the extremely fragmented nature of political institutions, especially from the French-speaking side. In the years since 1999, the PS has simultaneously controlled five regional executive bodies: the Francophone Community Government, the Walloon Regional Government, the Brussels Regional Government, as well as the COCOF, a local subsidiary in Brussels of the Francophone Community Government and even the German-speaking Community Government. The PS did very well in the 2003 election.

The ideology and image of the PS is a mix of old-style state interventionism, combined with a modern electoral marketing (since Elio Di Rupo became the party's strongman).

At the start of 2006, 14 of the 26 representatives of the Parti Socialiste, the largest party in the Brussels regional parliament, are Muslim immigrants (ten of Moroccan origin, two Turkish, one Tunisian and one from the West-African state of Guinea)

The party, or its members, has often been brought into connection with criminal activities and political scandals, mostly concerning bribery and financial fraud (Nijvel gang, Cools assassination, Agusta scandal, Dutroux affair, Carolorégienne affair, ICDI affair). The Carolorégienne affair caused Jean-Claude Van Cauwenberghe to step down as Minister-President of Wallonia (even though he got a new well-paid function).

Notable figures

(Past and present)

External links

[Official website]

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.