Belgian government divided over post office

During last Friday’s meeting of the Belgian cabinet, some French-speaking ministers are thought to have expressed concern about the increasingly Flemish character of the nation’s post office (La Poste). At the same time, other ministers asked why the Belgian government has agreed to finance La Poste’s redundancy plan and early retirement scheme – to the tune of BFr12bn – when the post office itself is investing left, right and centre and seems financially sound.
This debate will continue on Wednesday within the infrastructure committee. At that point, the socialist MP Karine Lalieux is expected to challenge the post and telecoms minister Rik Daems on the subject of Flemish domination of the post office and remind him of La Poste’s obligation to ensure a linguistic balance in recruitment. Mr Daems’ office has already responded to these remarks by claiming that La Poste’s new chief, Frans Rombouts, has appointed six franchophones and five Dutch speakers to his staff.
Abstracted from La Libre Belgique in French. Copyright 2001 Financial Times Information, Dow Jones, Dialog.