Comments on: 15 months of Belgian political mess

By: mollymooly

mollymooly — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:22:43 +0000

“the Walloon area and Brussels would remain the (post-divorce) Belgium”
One wonders if they would be allowed to retain more than just the name. The international community refused to recognise the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia as the successor state of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia after Croatia et al had seceded.

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 21:22:09 +0000

It certainly seems unusual to have a separatist movement that wants to take the capital with it.

By: novakant

novakant — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 18:21:38 +0000

oops, managed to mess up that link: In Bruges

By: novakant

novakant — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 17:33:13 +0000

Hm, that sounds all rather dismal. If you care for some Belgium related fun, I can highly recommend In Bruges, but only if you don’t mind politically incorrect humour and are able to understand a rather heavy Irish accent.

By: Ingrid Robeyns

Ingrid Robeyns — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 10:27:31 +0000

John,
I haven’t followed the news as closely as I should, so I haven’t heard about any new polls re: seperation. In July I was lucky enough to be able to read lots of francophone press, and there was then (and most likely still is) strong resistance against the idea of seperation; that is also the reason why the francophone politicians are not keen at all on the state reform talks, since they see that as just one step closer to splitting up the country. Francophone politicians have said publically that if the Flemish want to seperate, they can leave Belgium – implying that the Walloon area and Brussels would remain the (post-divorce) Belgium. Yet Flemish politicians don’t want to give up on Brussels – which also makes a genuine falling apart of the country unlikely.

I hope some Belgians who are based in Belgium will add information and their views – there is much more to say than I did in my brief post.

By: Lex

Lex — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:33:17 +0000

As far as I can see, the only good reason for not splitting the country up is the welfare-state liabilities issue. Much like a family that all hates each other, but has to live in the same house to keep claiming from the trust-fund…

By: John Quiggin

John Quiggin — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 08:22:44 +0000

Thanks for this, Ingrid. Some possibly naive questions:

In your earlier post you indicated that around half of Flemish Belgians wanted to split the country up. Has that changed, and if so in what direction? Do francophones still oppose a split? And how would things change if it became apparent that Brussels would be part of the francophone section in any split ?

By: Dan Simon

Dan Simon — Tue, 23 Sep 2008 00:41:31 +0000

15 months—feh. Canada’s constitutional “crisis” dragged on for decades, eventually receded, and now seems like an episode from ancient history. If 15 months of this nonsense is enough to sink you Belgians into a depression, you’ve got much more to worry about than political deadlock. Perhaps a couple of bracing Canadian winters is what you need, to toughen you up…

By: stostosto

stostosto — Mon, 22 Sep 2008 22:49:45 +0000

Thanks for the update, Ingrid.