Belgium Will Survive for Now, but Not for Long

A poll published yesterday in Het Laatste Nieuws, the largest newspaper in Flanders, shows that the Flemings do not expect Belgium to survive. 63% of the Flemish people think that Belgium’s end is near. 87% answered no when asked whether compromises should be made with the Walloon parties in order to save Belgium. 84% said that a reform of the State which grants greater autonomy to Flanders, should be the government’s absolute priority.

The socialist mayor of Brussels, Freddy Thielmans, had this reaction to the result of the ballot: "I think this declaration is very nationalistic. It's very close to what the Flemish far right movement demands and I'm surprised that democratic parties follow that demand. I also think it's the the defacto end of a shared living arrangement."Thielmans has also called for legal protection for Francophones living in Flanders, similar to the protection given to Dutch-speakers living in the Brussels region.

Flemings vote for Split

A proposal to split the electoral constituency of Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde has been passed by the Home Affairs Select Committee of the Chamber of Representatives, the lower house of the Belgian Federal Parliament.
The proposal was supported by all Flemish MPs present except Tinne van der Straeten of the Flemish ecologists of Groen! French-speaking MPs walked out before the vote could take place. The vote does not mean that the constituency is now split.
The proposal first needs the support of a majority of MPs in a plenary session of the Chamber of Representatives.
The vote has upset Yves Leterme's efforts to form a new Belgian government.

Mr Leterme had hoped to reach agreement between Flemish and Francophone liberals and Christian democrats on this issue ahead of the vote, but no such accord materialised.
Ahead of the vote the Francophone liberals said that they would leave the formation talks if the issue came to a vote, now they are suggesting the formation of a new government with a limited mandate: to address social economic issues.

The demise of Belgium would bring this country full circle.

In 1912, Jules Destree, a Francophone Socialist, wrote King Albert I a letter saying his nation - which gained independence from the Netherlands in 1830 - was an artificial nation with no regard for reality on the ground.

Flemings and Walloons are complete opposites, Destree argued.

''What excites one, leaves the other stone-cold ... The Walloon belongs to the Latin civilization, the Fleming to the Germanic culture. We have in Belgium Walloons and Flemings. There are no Belgians, sire.''

Read the full story in Expatica