The Belgium Royal Dysfunctional Family is worth 2.25 billion euros

The owner of the luxurious property 'Villa Fanini' in the Italian region of Tuscany has officially confirmed to Het Laatste Nieuws that King Albert offered 50 million euros for the 31-hectare domain with its enormous villa, vineyards, swimming pool, hotel and restaurant.

The paper questions how he could make the offer with Albert’s official private wealth of 12.4 million euros (excluding his country residence in the South of France and his yacht).

The private wealth of the Royal Family is still one of the greatest mysteries in the country, says Jan Van den Berghe, a well-known royal watcher. Van den Berghe.

In 1999 the business paper 'Euro Business' maintained that the Belgian Royal Family were 2.25 billion euros strong. That amount was the result of months of investigations by two British journalists, but it includes all properties of the Crown, such as palaces.

Van den Berghe thinks that the result of 200 million euros, as calculated by a British paper, is more realistic. It is remarkable that less than two weeks ago the King spoke at length about poverty in his 21 July speech and called on solidarity with the almost 15% poor and needy people in our country. “With the 50 million euros offer in mind, his speech is questionable”, according to Van den Berghe.

What is Belgium actually for?

It is of no strategic value to anyone, and should no longer be sustained artificially
To paraphrase Rene Magritte, one of the few unquestionably famous Belgians, 'Ceci n'est pas une nation'. As the slow dissolution of their state continues, even Francophone Belgians, hitherto champions of the status quo, are casting around for alternatives. A poll in Le Soir suggests that 49 per cent of Walloons favour incorporation into France, up from 22 per cent at the end of last year.
The Flemish, for their part, tend to see Belgium as a mechanism for taking their taxes and subsidising the Walloons. (They are wrong: it is a mechanism for taking their taxes and subsidising the most bloated public sector in Europe. Ordinary Walloons do just as badly out of the racket as they do.)

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50% of Walloons say, lets join France...including me!

I don't think the French would take them though. Why not ally them with the Quebecois and create a new nation of Francophone rejects.

If Belgium should be split, almost half of the people living below the language divide, in Wallonia, would not object to Wallonia becoming a part of France.
According to a poll carried out by the Francophone Belgian daily Le Soir and the French daily La Voix du Nord, 49 percent of Walloon citizens would not object to Wallonia being incorporated into France.

I don't think the French would take them though. Why not ally them with the Quebecois and create a new nation of Francophone rejects.

The same poll, conducted among some 1,500 people, shows that 60 percent of French respondents support the idea.
23 percent of Walloon respondents think that Belgium will really cease to exist, but 59 percent say our country will not disappear.
However, the political crisis in Belgium is "serious" according to 93 percent of the people taking part in the poll.

"Wallonia and France are quite close already"
The Flemish public broadcaster VRT went to Brussels to listen to the man in the street.
"Belgium wil disappear, that's for sure. If there is a majority in Flanders to split the country up... it's like in a relationship. If your wife wants to go, she is off", says one French-speaking man.
"Wallonia becoming a part of France would have one big advantage. We would only have one government. One, instead of six!" says another man.
"Wallonia and France are quite close", a French-speaking woman tells reporters. "We speak the same language and have the same mentality."

The King avoids talk about the political crisis in his speech

Much had been expected of the speech the King traditionally has on the eve of the National Holiday, most probably because the TV broadcast of this had been postponed by one day due to the political crisis. However, the King only briefly referred to the political crisis in Belgium.
‘As you all know, we have been experiencing political problems for some time. However, I would like to remind you that problems and crises can lead to revitalisation and quietness. The separation of minds is not a fatality. Unity and tolerance, with a respect for the identity of each federated entity, is the only way out in our democratic society.
We must consider new forms of living together in our country.’ That was all the King had to say after a year-long political crisis. Het laatste Nieuws, however, reminded its readers that the government is actually writing the speech of the King. The King used the rest of his speech to the legacy of his brother, who died 15 years ago. King Albert reminded his people that poverty, human trafficking and juvenile violence were topics that were particularly close to Baudouin’s heart, and which today are still topical.
The King paid specific attention to poverty. He pointed out that one out of seven Belgians (or 14,7%) in our country may be seen as poor today. ‘This percentage is higher than in our neighbouring countries, and we have to steadfastly continue with our efforts to get it significantly lower.’

According to Royalty watcher Jan Van den Berghe, it is noticeable that Albert referred to the deceased King Baudouin. ‘His speech seemed like a desparate message by someone can't cope with the whole political situation any longer. It was a kind of ode to his brother, who had more moral authority and had been able to closely follow the political situation and control it,’ according to Van den Berghe.

Was this the last National Day for Belgium?

The joke at the national celebrations was that yesterday's event could end up being the last one with Belgium splitting apart along linguistic lines. For the moment such predictions seem far-fetched if only because the capital, Brussels, is rooted in Flanders yet has a clear majority Francophone population.

But if the political deadlock drags on for much longer at a time when inflation is running at 5.8 per cent and the Belgian economy is grinding to a halt, who knows where the current impasse will lead the country? READ MORE

Boobs for Belgium

Sending in pictures of your boobs to solve the political crisis in Belgium. Sounds like the best idea I've heard yet, and how can it be any worse than what these idiots have accomplished in the last year.
We will take direct submissions of boobs on this website for any reason.
check out Boobs for Belgium

Illegitimate daughter aims poisoned art at Belgian king

Wasn't it just yesterday I mentioned supporting the King's illegitimate children with tax dollars..... I have a feeling he may wish he gave this "love child" a few more hugs. At least she's not stripping!

In a departure from Belgium’s usually reverent treatment of its royalty, the illegitimate daughter of King Albert II is about to publish a book attacking him for disowning her.
“We’ve never had a big-time daddy-daughter relationship,” she said last week in her Brussels studio. “The last time I saw him I was 25 years old.
I’m blamed for doing things that are a little vulgar,” said Boël, smiling at her model of the Manneken Pis, the famous Belgian statue of a little boy urinating. Her version includes a giant phallus in the colours of the national flag. STORY

Belgium Royals cost the taxpayers 28 million Euros

The Flemish nationalist lawmaker Jan Jambon says that the Belgian royal family is getting far more from the taxpayer than just the "civil list", the subsidy awarded to most members of King Albert's close family. Mr Jambon says the real price tag is three times the civil list.
The public list awards 9 million euros from the public purse to King Albert each year. In all the royal family gets 12 million from the public list.
Mr Jambon points to the hidden costs of the royal family. These costs account for a further 16 million euros that are listed on the budgets of other government departments.
Heating costs are funded separately. Some 234 police officers ensure the royal family's security, while the royals do not have to pay for their air travel. The lawmaker insists that if the present civil list is not enough, it should be increased so that there is greater transparency about royal finances.
Mr Jambon also calls for the scrapping of the public funds awarded to Princess Astrid and Prince Laurent, King Albert's other children.
He told the VRT: "They are ordinary people like you and me. I don't see why they shouldn't get a job."

I love Mr Ham.....but a Belgian Politician that makes sense? What a country!
Isn't paying for someone elses illegitimate children part of the culture? Besides, what job would fat Prince Laurent possibly be qualified for, except accepting welfare checks in Wallonia.

Leterme throws in the towel

Yves Leterme, the Flemish Christian democrat who has been attempting to form a new federal Government, has asked King Albert to relieve him of his task.

Mr Leterme met with King Albert at the Palace on Saturday afternoon. The king agreed to Leterme's request.

FLANDERS NEWS

Splitting Up Belgium

Here's One for you fans of the information coming out of financial markets:
The spreads over German bonds have jumped from four to 17 as questions grow about the long-term status of Belgium's €278 billion (£198 billion) public debt.
Those markets are indicating that many more people think Belgium will break up. Real money tends to bitch slap people into reality a bit. If it does, there'll have to be some allocation of that debt to the various places that then become sovereign:
"The Belgian Treasury has no plan at all. They could think about two systems: one where the debt is guaranteed as a whole by the two regions. Or they could split it between the two regions, but that is not easy because they have different credit ratings.
"Flanders has AAA, while Brussels and Wallonia are lower,"
Be nice to buy Belgian debt at AA+ and end up with Flanders at AAA, wouldn't it? But that isn't, unfortunately, what's likely to happen in the event of a break up. If markets aren't what you use instead of tea leaves, how about this?
There is an online petition site calling for Belgian unity with stickers and posters up all over Brussels, the glory of it is that all the slogans are in English as they wouldn't dare put them in either of the big national languages.
Difficult to argue for national unity if you have to use a foreign language to unite your supporters really, isn't it?

Belgium in Crisis...King's on Holiday

Talks to form a Belgian coalition government collapsed Thursday with King Albert II ending Flemish Christian Democrat leader Yves Leterme's fruitless attempt to reach a deal with francophone partners, the palace announced.

The King actually delayed the process a few hours as he had to be called back from the south of France where he was kicked back at the pool sipping cocktails.

The king returned to his palace in the evening to be greeted by a group of demonstrators waving Flemish flags and calling for independence for Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern part of Belgium.

The result of all this: Yves Leterme had to wait several hours until the King finally decided the time was right to come back from the South of France and meet Leterme. Not only did the King show everybody that he has absolutely no interest in what's supposed to be his full-time job, he even managed to block the process of forming a new federal government in Belgium for several hours. Thank god that we have a Monarchy to save this country!

And to think I may have wasted all these hours brushing up on the Belgian National Anthem.