LUISA DOMENICHELLI

Il ruolo della Corona nella costituzione federale belga del 1993

N. 171

Summary — Monarchy has always been of great importance in the Belgian juridical system. Whilst in other countries the King has been deprived of many of his powers, up to playing a merely representative role, in Belgium he has kept many of his prerogatives, although exerced with more caution.

The constitutional revision of May 1993, which transformed Belgium into a Federal State and which at the same time performed a rationalization of the form of government, indirectly affected the Crown, so that one can think, if only superficially, that the Royal function has been redesigned. But a thorough analysis of the new clauses and of the constitutional conventions, brings us to different conclusions: the king still keeps his power of dissolving if the House is not in the position of expressing a constructive confidence. He can have a determining weight in appointing the Prime Minister, due to the anomalous mechanism of the double parliamentary appointment and he moreover reacquires his full powers in case of extraparliamentary government crisis.

The author wonders about the possibility of reconciling a still important monarchic presence with the democratic needs according to which power should always be exerced together with a certain degree of political responsibility.