On the occasion of the official ceremony of the Fêtes de Wallonie on 19 September at the Théâtre Royal in Namur, Walloon Minister-President Adrien Dolimont delivered a forward-looking speech on the future of Wallonia, the need to continue reforms and cooperation between the Regions. For the first time, Flanders was the guest of honour at the festivities.
In the presence of King Philippe and Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele among others, Adrien Dolimont recalled the need for Wallonia to continue its transformation and restore sound public finances. Reducing structures and public spending, reforming institutions and abolishing the provincial level: the Minister-President reaffirmed his determination to change how the Region operates.
His speech was also an opportunity to look back at the fires that struck the High Fens this summer and the need to better prepare Wallonia for the consequences of climate change.
With Flanders as guest of honour, Adrien Dolimont finally called for moving beyond rivalry between Regions in favour of emulation and cooperation. Facing competition that now plays out on a European and global scale, he championed a Wallonia that is “prosperous, productive, innovative and determined”, capable of fully reclaiming its place alongside the country's other Regions.
Below you will find the full speech delivered by Adrien Dolimont on the occasion of the Fêtes de Wallonie.
Speech by Adrien Dolimont
Mr Flemish Minister-President,
Mr President of Parliament,
Excellencies,
Ladies and gentlemen, in your respective capacities,
Dear members of the press,
Dear friends,
Last year, the Prime Minister was among us.
This year, His Majesty the King was present.
And today I am delighted to welcome the Flemish Minister-President Matthias Diependaele.
The Fêtes de Wallonie are therefore also an event for the whole of Belgium.
Ladies and gentlemen,
After the Champagne-Ardenne Region
The Grand Duchy of Luxembourg.
Rhineland-Palatinate.
Hauts-de-France,
And so many others.
We had to wait until 2026 for Flanders to become, for the first time, guest of honour at the Fêtes de Wallonie.
Last year, we invited Vietnam.
No one asked us why.
This year, Flanders raises more questions.
Why did we wait so long?
Let's just say our relations have not always been simple.
We looked at each other through our clichés, our misunderstandings, our sensitivities.
We compared ourselves a great deal, at times pitting ourselves against each other.
The way Wallonia was perceived sometimes hurt us, but it also pointed to weaknesses we were aware of ourselves.
When you don't like the image others have of you,
you can either spend your time reproaching them for it,
or give them reasons to change their view.
The second option seems to me the wiser one.
Two years ago, as soon as the government was formed, we wanted to identify what no longer worked.
We then began the labours of Hercules.
He only had 12, the lucky one.
We have a much larger number, including reducing our deficit.
We will never know whether Hercules himself would have succeeded.
Churchill (quoting Churchill always lends weight to a speech), Winston, that is, said: “The truth is incontrovertible. Panic may resent it, ignorance may deride it, malice may distort it, but there it is.”
There are several ways to reduce a deficit:
spend less,
some will say tax more,
or hope very hard.
In Wallonia, in Belgium too, we have tried the last option a great deal.
Lying to oneself is easy.
BUT, WHETHER SOME LIKE IT OR NOT, governing a region requires upholding, AND THEREFORE RETURNING TO, sound public finances.
There is no miracle recipe when reforming a welfare state without breaking the solidarity that must remain at its heart.
We must do better with less.
That is, in essence, what our Prime Minister stated a few days ago: without deep institutional reform, our country will never emerge from its difficulties.
Today we must indeed be pragmatic, and in our Regions there is already much to do.
Let us set an example for the citizens who demand it:
reducing the number of structures, layers and tiers and cutting back our way of operating is a strong signal.
Yes, we want fewer MPs.
Yes, we want fewer elected representatives.
Yes, certain municipalities should merge.
Yes, we will abolish the provincial level of power.
Yes, we will reduce public spending, because you cannot endlessly distribute wealth that you no longer produce.
At some point, even the cash machine says: “insufficient balance”.
Nietzsche teaches us, through perspectivism, that: “All knowledge and all truth are conditioned by a particular point of view.”
In politics, this is, too often, the case.
Every reform disrupts habits.
Everyone naturally looks at what they risk losing.
Seen from within a structure, a reform looks like a loss.
Seen from the standpoint of the general interest, it is in all likelihood progress.
That is why it is the role of all of us here to look at what the community, and I do mean the community, stands to gain.
Because, as you know, several of these major reforms require a majority that transcends political divides.
On these essential matters, therefore, expect no retreat on my part.
This summer, more than 3,400 hectares of the High Fens went up in flames.
I went there immediately. I saw a devastated landscape, at the heart of one of our most beautiful natural sites.
On the ground, I saw the scale of the human resources mobilised.
From a distance, one does not always grasp what such a battle involves. The endless hours. The fatigue. The acrid smoke. The heat.
Faced with a fire unprecedented in our territory, men and women took turns for days on end: firefighters, DNF agents, security forces, soldiers, farmers, volunteers, public services.
Their professionalism is remarkable. Their humanity, even more so.
To all those who took part in this effort, I say thank you, and I ask you to applaud them.
We will restore the Fens.
But simply replanting and rebuilding while waiting for the next time is not a policy.
Our role is to draw lessons from this tragedy.
We will not be able to prevent everything.
But we can be better prepared.
This adaptation requires us to look beyond our political terms.
Our mandates last 5 years. The climate itself does not vote.
We must judge a proposal on its own merits, not on which side it comes from.
There are moments when preparing for the future matters more than winning the next confrontation.
We will not build this future alone…
Dear Matthias,
This summer I heard that a “Belgium the Flemish way” might also suit Wallonia.
I know the “carbonades à la flamande”,
“Belgium the Flemish way” is, I admit, less familiar to me.
I believe we have more to gain from inspiring one another than from imitating one another.
All the more so since we have long practised a very Belgian form of cooperation agreement:
you come to us, we go to you, and we size each other up.
Comparing ourselves is not necessarily a bad thing, provided we favour emulation over competition.
If a reform works in Flanders, let's look at what we can learn from it.
If a reform works in Wallonia, and I keep our long list ready for you, dear Matthias, I hope it can inspire you.
As we know, dear friends,
when everyone does something better for their population,
that spurs the other to perform better in turn,
and all Belgians benefit from that.
That of course assumes we can trust one another.
I want to say it today: we don't always agree, but I have found in the Flemish Government a demanding and loyal partner.
Some know my fondness for cycling:
receiving a flandrien allows me to carry the metaphor further.
You have the Flandriennes, cobbles and climbs.
We have the Ardennaises, slopes and valleys.
We have monuments, each with its own hardship, each with its own beauty.
Cycling teaches us one thing.
In a peloton, some stay sheltered in the wheels, and they will never have an impact on the race.
Others, the breakaway riders, love to shake up the race.
Like Remco, who attacks 70 kilometres from the finish.
Like Wout, who gives himself much more than a victory in Roubaix, I still get shivers from it.
The history of sport, like that of politics, does not remember those who hide, nor those who manage their small capital. It remembers those who dare.
That is the ambition I want to carry for our region.
Boldness rather than ease.
Risk rather than complacency.
Changing without trembling, rather than trembling at change.
Dear Matthias,
Since you accepted our invitation to the Fêtes de Wallonie, know that I would gladly accept yours to celebrate, in turn, the 11th of July and the Battle of the Golden Spurs.
After all, Namur has its Échasseurs.
In Kortrijk, you have your knights.
We have apparently retained, on both sides of the language border, a certain taste for battles.
Let's keep that for our historical festivities.
Because the battles that really matter today are elsewhere.
The real competition no longer plays out between Namur, Brussels and Antwerp.
It plays out on a European scale.
When a company decides where to invest, it looks at our talent.
Our energy.
Our infrastructure.
Our timeframes.
The stability of our rules.
Our ability to decide.
It compares our territories with the best-performing regions in Europe.
That is why the real peloton we must stay in is neither Walloon, nor Brussels, nor Flemish.
It is European.
Our businesses have already understood this.
Our researchers work together.
Our industries are complementary.
Thousands of workers cross regional borders every day without wondering where an institutional competence ends.
Reality has already taken a big lead over our debates, which, it must be said, sometimes rank us among the laggards.
Our ambition cannot therefore stop at our regional borders.
A war has taken hold on Europe's doorstep.
Another blocks one, even two straits, and sends our pump prices soaring.
Washington and Beijing are redrawing world trade. Our oldest allies are imposing tariffs that completely upend our industries and slow our economy.
None of these decisions were made here, and yet all of them hit us hard.
The urgent question is whether, together, we are capable of ranking among the best in this profoundly changing world.
To meet these new challenges, we need a prosperous, productive, innovative and determined Wallonia.
It is a Wallonia like this, alongside Flanders among others, that Europe needs.
I am deeply convinced of this: a region that was at the heart of industrial revolutions can reclaim its place.
A region gets moving again as soon as we decide to propel it forward.
In 2025, 12% more businesses were created in Wallonia.
Our hiring prospects are the highest in the country, with a 22% increase.
These results must encourage us.
They must never satisfy us.
A Wallonia that is comfortable in its own skin does not rest on its certainties.
It knows its worth.
It also knows the road it still has to travel.
It moves forward with the quiet pride of those who know the value of their ideas and who have the drive to build everything.
Above all, it knows that reclaiming its place does not mean taking that of others.
It means moving forward with them.
Here, in Belgium.
And together, in Europe.
Samen sterker. Stronger together.
Average Rob puts it rather well in his own way: we like to laugh about what divides us, but sometimes a single feat is enough to remind us of everything that unites us.
Perhaps that is, ultimately, what we have in common: having learned to turn our contradictions into an identity.
Mr Minister-President,
Dear friends,
Welcome to Wallonia.
Enjoy our festivities.
Don't be surprised if someone kisses you on the cheek.
If a somewhat vigorous hug startles you.
If a dozen pékets end up in your hands.
That too is Belgium the Walloon way.
Happy Fêtes de Wallonie to everyone.
Bone fiesse di Walonîye!