Proposition 53K1657

Proposition de résolution relative à l'instauration d'une journée nationale des porte-drapeaux.

General information ¶

Authors

LE Josy Arens
MR Corinne De Permentier
PS | SP Anthony Dufrane, Vincent Sampaoli

Submission date

July 5, 2011

Official page

Visit

Status

Adopted

Requirement

Simple

Subjects

public holiday resolution of parliament war

Voting ¶

Voted to adopt

Groen CD&V Vooruit Ecolo LE PS | SP Open Vld MR

Voted to reject

N-VA LDD VB

Party dissidents ¶

• Peter Luykx (CD&V) voted to reject.

Contact form ¶

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Discussion ¶

Jan. 23, 2014 | Plenary session (Chamber of representatives)

Full source

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, Mr. Minister present here, we are discussing the proposal for a resolution on the establishment of a national day for the flagholders.

Mrs De Permentier, the chief promoter of this resolution, wishes to proclaim 1 September as a national day for recognition of the achievements of our flag-bearers. It is a symbolic recognition, so that the flagholders can organize their annual meeting on 1 September. It is also an expression of gratitude to the flagholders.

It could also encourage young people to encourage memory education, quod non, but I will reserve that part of my presentation for later.

Mr Vincent Sampaoli, co-contributor of the proposal, agrees with those statements. He also emphasizes that it is very important for his group to keep the memory alive, both from a historical point of view and for the awareness of young people.

The Annual Meeting of the Flagholders is an important recurring opportunity to bring back attention to the duty of remembrance and the work of remembrance and to keep it alive.

However, the organizers who want to organize demonstrations in this context would encounter many difficulties in practice. In the Belgian ceremonial calendar – I did not know that such a calendar existed – there is no official commemoration day.

Mrs Annick Ponthier, who is also absent, suggested that no additional commemorative day should be created, but that the existing commemorative days, for example 8 May or 11 November, should be taken into account.

This was stated by the Minister of National Defence, Pieter De Crem. He could find himself in the starting point of the applicants, in particular that the flagholders contribute in a meaningful way to the concretization of the commemoration by paying tribute to the victims of the two world wars. These people deserve recognition, according to the Minister. Just for this purpose, the Defense in 2001 called for an honorary diploma of flag-bearer in life.

However, the establishment of a national day of the flag-bearer is, according to Minister De Crem, of a different order. Defence tries to rationalize the ceremonies with a national character, but according to the Minister of Defence recognition of September 1 as a national day would counter this.

The draft resolution was finally voted by the committee, after two attempts by the majority to get in number. The proposal was adopted with 11 votes for and 3 votes against.

Mr. Speaker, this is how I come to my presentation of this extremely important resolution, which I can formulate from the presence of the members in this assembly. As the mayor of a small town, I can testify that there are many commemorations of the war victims with the associated stunts and ceremonies. There are 1 November, 11 November, 15 November, 21 July, 8 May and so on. The flagship carriers are already painted in those days. They are honored for their task, their mission.

Now the question is whether we should introduce another special day on September 1 to commemorate the flag-bearers. I think of no, and I am not alone in that. Minister De Crem – who is absent here for a moment or definitively – also thought of not. Colleagues, then we organize a day to commemorate who organizes commemorations. We organize a day to commemorate the memorials. You just have to invent it, a commemoration of volunteers.

As far as we are concerned, the slinger goes too far to the wrong side. Should we adopt a resolution here next week to commemorate the Volunteers of the Red Cross on September 2nd, to commemorate the Volunteers of 11.11.11 on September 3rd, to commemorate the Volunteers of Brotherly Sharing on September 4th, to commemorate the Volunteers who make their annual tour for Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com Com ? Should we take that turn? I do not think.

All those who dare to call other assemblies here sometimes “children parliaments” or “refined municipal councils” will soon press the green button for this kindergarten resolution. After four years in the Chamber, my young naivety is unfortunately struck. I thought we would be doing serious things here, quod non.

Colleagues, also the colleagues of CD&V, let us remain honest and serious, soyons serious. Listen to what your own minister had to say about this resolution. Listen to what Pieter De Crem has said about this resolution and just vote against it. This is a childhood resolution.

Mr. Speaker, Mr. Minister, my dear colleagues, I will not reopen the debate here – ⁇ worthy of the maternal –: everything has been said in the committee. Many people have been sensitive to what I will repeat to you now.

As for you, dear Mr, you may be a young parliamentary mayor; I, I was the mayor of a municipality and I consider it essential to perpetuate the work of memory and to thank the people who have served our country. Maybe it’s not the same vision that some countries have of recognition for the people who fought for us during these two wars.

We adopt this afternoon the proposal for a resolution to recognize the day of September 1 as the National Flag Keeper Day.

First of all, I would like to thank the Minister of Defence and the co-signers, Josy Arens and Vincent Sampaoli, and finally the members of the Defence Committee who voted for this draft resolution.

We all know that 2014 is an important year for our country. It will be political, but also historical. In many places, we will pay tribute to our soldiers who fell for Belgium, to those who sacrificed their lives and their youth for the fundamental values that we all defend.

In 2014, it marks the 100th anniversary of the Great War and the 70th anniversary of the Liberation of the National Territory.

In 2014, it is the occasion of an exceptional mobilization for all our fellow citizens around their common history and the struggle for peace.

As elected members of the Nation, we must engage in this duty of collective memory. Duty for recognition, duty for honor. Humans must, from their lifetime, bring to others their knowledge, share it, make use of it, and offer it to present and future generations.

The duty of memory must serve as an example in relation to the values that give true meaning to life. It will serve as an elevation of knowledge to morality for the individual himself, at the same time as for the whole society.

The duty of memory must show our appreciation, our respect, also to those who returned from it; we must honor those men, those women who defended our soil, our families, our bonds and our freedom.

Mr. Speaker, I think it was indispensable to highlight the involvement of the flagholders, as a symbol, in this work of memory.

With their action, they will commemorate the memory of people missing during the two world conflicts. They will pay tribute to those men and women who died in the various conflicts in which our army participated. Former fighters or not, they voluntarily ensure during patriotic demonstrations the service of the flag bearer in their regiment or their association.

This mission is highly symbolic since the flag-bearer pays tribute in the name of Belgium to the fighters and the missing. This is a function that requires dignity and consistency in commitment.

With this proposal, each of them must thus be better recognized.

Even if this proposal has not been formulated during the debates, I think it would be interesting to arouse the interest of our young people in the role of flag-bearer. It would be an honor as well as a duty. These trained young flag holders would be proud of their commitment and visible at the November 11 ceremonies.

Under your impulse, the mayors of our municipalities could organize a training for these young recruits from their municipality so that they keep their place with the elders throughout the year. These young people are highly motivated, can perpetuate memory work and offer a welcome relief while the number of former fighters, as is known, is constantly decreasing.

This commitment to the service of the duty of memory, children will take it seriously and emotionally. They will feel the history of our country and the suffering caused by the wars they have gone through. Last October 13th, for example, among the former fighters present to revive the flame of the Arc de Triomphe in Paris, a young flag-bearer made sensation. Sami Thellier is only 14 years old and is the youngest flag-bearer in his region for two years. I think this is a good example to follow for our young people.

I believe in this youth, a citizen and involved youth. Thanks to her, the work of memory will perpetuate, I am sure.

Mr. Speaker, memory is part of those intangible values that require full and complete awareness, unless it is erased. I am therefore pleased with the work that we can do in the National Defense Committee with several colleagues. My group attaches essential importance to memory work both from a historical point of view and at the level of the underlying work to be done, especially the awareness of the younger generations.

Remembering history is not at all a pastistic or even anecdotal attitude. But the opposite! The memory is a wealth that must keep our civil and political actions so that the "Never More That!" finds yet another echo when inexorably time passes and forgetting waits.

Even if the background must remain the same, this memory can take varying forms and calls for active support of certain punctual and recurring manifestations.

It is therefore in this spirit that my group strongly supported the text presented by our colleague Mrs. De Permentier in connection with the commemoration of 1914-1918 this year. We co-signed this resolution proposal to establish a national flag-bearing day.

It is also in this spirit that we wrote a proposal for a resolution on the Korean War, which was adopted last week in a committee.

The annual gathering of flagship holders is an important recurring opportunity to remind and feed the work of memory. The flag holders commemorate with their action the memory of the people missing during the two world conflicts. Voluntarily, they pay tribute to those and those who fell fighting against an antidemocratic ideology. These are people who fought for freedom.

Of course, it is necessary to ensure the coherence and rationalization of such events so that they do not fall into obsolescence, and that, whether they have a local, national or international connotation. The message should not be diluted or blurred.

If this rationalization is essential and if I welcome the various initiatives taken by Defense in this regard, at the present time, it seems important to emphasize that in the absence of a real official day in the Belgian calendar of ceremonies, many organizational difficulties are encountered.

My group will therefore support this text which aims, on a purely symbolic level, to give the day of September 1 a specific status in the calendar of official demonstrations.

I hope that this National Day of the Flag Carriers can be realised in the facts by the Minister, who has thus been able to count on the full and full support of our assembly.

Mr. Speaker, colleagues, the basis of the proposal for a resolution presented today, according to the applicants, is to pay tribute to all those who died for the motherland in the two world wars.

According to the applicant, Mrs. De Permentier, this resolution aims to highlight the courage of the front soldiers and the horrors of the war. Since, apparently, for several years, several flagholders have already gathered on September 1 to commemorate the aforementioned events, that day would be the best day to keep the memorial duty alive, the proposal states.

There were also reports of some practical difficulties that the organizers encountered on 1 September. On the question of what exactly they are, the committee remained guilty of the answer. That is not the question either. The question to be asked is whether there is a need to establish a National Day of the Flagholders.

We are not convinced of this. According to our group, it is primarily the historical events themselves that need to be commemorated, rather than the persons who commemorate these events. With our amendment in the committee, we wanted to demonstrate that this proposal is useless, by saying that we must not forget the wearers of honorary muts and memorial medals. In the committee, we even wanted to find a solution to some of the practical difficulties facing the flagholders.

What our group also wanted to give in the amendment is that if there is a need to honor the flagholders extra, this can perfectly be done on the existing moments of worship. September 1 is not a historical commemorative date. 11 November and 8 May, for example.

In our opinion, if desired, everything could be perfectly integrated on those days, so that the flag-bearers can be honored in their own way. Our position on this subject was, by the way, not for the first time, fully supported by the Minister. He stated that he could find himself in the will to concretize the commemorative duty. He listed the initiatives that Defense has already taken in the past, such as the establishment of an honorary diploma of flag-bearer and numerous other initiatives. However, this proposal is, and I quote the minister, “of a different order”.

Establishing a separate national day for commemoration of major war events would mean that the already existing initiatives are insufficient. The Minister has clearly denied this in the committee.

Between the first discussion of the draft resolution during one week, and the continuation of the discussion with the subsequent vote in the following week – once again there was no majority present in the Committee for the Defense of the Land to validly vote on its own proposals – there must have been somewhere a short-circuit or disturbance on the line, but it has ultimately resulted in the approval of the proposal by all majority parties, including CD&V, which first, by the mouth of its minister, opposed the proposal and demonstrated its superfluity. We have always done this latter too.

Understand who can. The Flemish Interest has remained consistent, as always, and does not support the present proposal for a resolution.