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Flemish Separatists Win in Belgium
NYT ^ | June 13, 2010 | STEPHEN CASTLE

Posted on 06/13/2010 4:09:43 PM PDT by americanophile

BRUSSELS — The move to break up Belgium gathered momentum Sunday as separatists won an emphatic election victory in Flanders, the prosperous Dutch-speaking half of the fiercely divided nation.

A stunning electoral success for Bart de Wever’s Flemish nationalist party marks a significant new challenge to the fragile unity of a country where tensions between French and Dutch speakers run deep.

Scheduled to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in less than three weeks, Belgium will now do so with a caretaker administration and facing months of tortuous negotiations to put together a coalition government.

“We are close to the abyss,” said Lieven De Winter, professor of politics at the Université Catholique de Louvain, who described Mr. De Wever’s win as a landslide. “Whether we are five meters or five centimeters away is difficult to say. But Belgians are at a crossroads where they are making a choice on whether they want to live together or not.”

(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News
KEYWORDS: belgium; dutch; flanders; flemish; french; seperatists; vote
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To: americanophile

Let the dismantling of the EU begin!


21 posted on 06/13/2010 4:41:22 PM PDT by counterpunch (Heckuva job, Barry!)
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To: americanophile

“Flanders would go to Holland and Wallonia to France and perhaps part to Germany and Luxembourg as well.”

As a practical matter, Dutch and Flemish are the same language (they’re indistinguishable on paper, though the local dialects and accents vary), so you’d think merging Flanders and Holland would be easy. It would make more sense than the present jury-rigged arrangement of French and Dutch-speaking regions pretending to be one happy country. From what people who live there have told me, however, the Flemish nationalists want their own country and do not want to join Holland. There are local resentments, grudges, and religious differences, not to mention historic reasons (Belgium came about as a revolt for independence from Holland in the 1830s in the first place). And Holland has enough trouble balancing its own array of political and religious factions to want to absorb millions of new voters. Supposedly, studies have shown that Flanders has the economic potential for sustaining itself as an independent nation. Wallonia, on the other hand, is poorer and landlocked, and union with France might be its best option.


22 posted on 06/13/2010 4:43:44 PM PDT by Deklane
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To: Deklane

Who cares? Isn’t Belgium the size of about 3 US counties anyway?


23 posted on 06/13/2010 4:55:27 PM PDT by gthog61
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To: Cincinna; AdmSmith; Berosus; bigheadfred; blueyon; Convert from ECUSA; dervish; ...
...in Flanders, the prosperous Dutch-speaking half of the fiercely divided nation. A stunning electoral success for Bart de Wever's Flemish nationalist party marks a significant new challenge to the fragile unity of a country where tensions between French and Dutch speakers run deep. Scheduled to take over the rotating presidency of the European Union in less than three weeks, Belgium will now do so with a caretaker administration and facing months of tortuous negotiations to put together a coalition government. "We are close to the abyss," said Lieven De Winter, professor of politics at the Université Catholique de Louvain, who described Mr. De Wever's win as a landslide. "Whether we are five meters or five centimeters away is difficult to say. But Belgians are at a crossroads where they are making a choice on whether they want to live together or not."

24 posted on 06/13/2010 5:08:35 PM PDT by SunkenCiv ("Fools learn from experience. I prefer to learn from the experience of others." -- Otto von Bismarck)
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To: americanophile

25 posted on 06/13/2010 5:10:52 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: dfwgator; cardinal4

I like Stella Artois.


26 posted on 06/13/2010 5:30:06 PM PDT by Ax
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To: Deklane

I think you’re right about that.


27 posted on 06/13/2010 5:32:48 PM PDT by americanophile (November can't come fast enough....)
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To: abb

yes


28 posted on 06/13/2010 5:34:13 PM PDT by americanophile (November can't come fast enough....)
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To: americanophile

Goooood.
Things getting pretty boring,
Not enough crap going on already.

Scorecards,
Get ya scorecards.
See who’s gonna whoop who’s ass.
Scorecards.


29 posted on 06/13/2010 5:34:22 PM PDT by Joe Boucher (Just say NO to RINOs. (FUBO))
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To: americanophile

...assuming Belgium can afford to cut itself in half. Splitting up welfare states probably costs a pretty penny, especially if one of the halves would be deprived of a tax base to keep it afloat.


30 posted on 06/13/2010 5:40:59 PM PDT by dr_who
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To: Ax

It’s basically Euro Budweiser. I keep some around, along with the serious beers, which coincidentally tend to be Belgian style tripels. Those monks do beer right!


31 posted on 06/13/2010 5:55:56 PM PDT by FreedomPoster (No Representation without Taxation!)
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To: abb

Isn’t that interesting? And they want to shut down the internet here. Can’t stand ‘too much information’ getting around.


32 posted on 06/13/2010 6:00:42 PM PDT by RushIsMyTeddyBear (I don't have a 'Cousin Pookie'.)
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To: C19fan

And Luxembourg broke away from Belgium. The Netherlands of 1830 was the first Yugoslavia.


33 posted on 06/13/2010 6:03:39 PM PDT by Eternal_Bear (`)
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To: Carry_Okie

Well the West Coast refers to East Los Angeles as well as
Silicon Valley doesn’t it?


34 posted on 06/13/2010 6:26:37 PM PDT by Doulos1 (Bitter Clinger Forever)
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To: americanophile
Here's the basic problem in Belgium. You have poorer French-speakers using the power of the State to tax the more productive Dutch-speakers. Now, you can get away with an inner-tribal or inner-ethnic democratic socialism for a period of time, because people see themselves as belonging to a larger entity, think the Scandinavian countries of Sweden, Denmark or Finland.

Introduce language and ethnic differences and you have a recipe for disaster.

35 posted on 06/13/2010 6:50:11 PM PDT by Jabba the Nutt (Are they insane, stupid or just evil?)
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To: americanophile

Doubtful.

Canada isn’t just Flemish and Walloon, French and English.

Western Canada has no love for central canadians, be they french or English.

It would have to be Western Separatism, which has picked up considerably.


36 posted on 06/13/2010 6:58:19 PM PDT by BenKenobi (I want to hear more about Sam! Samwise the stouthearted!)
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To: americanophile

Belgium is an artificial state created by European diplomats (was it after the Peace of Westphalia?). There’s no reason for Flanders to have to keep having to support the Walloons.


37 posted on 06/13/2010 7:09:50 PM PDT by AuH2ORepublican (If a politician won't protect innocent babies, what makes you think that he'll protect your rights?)
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To: americanophile
What I can't figure out is how the EU expects to hold all of Europe together when they can't even hold together the country which hosts it capital.

From what I've read on the topic, I would have to express sympathies with the Flemish.

They appear to be the more industrious of the two groups, but consistently get outvoted by the French speaking majority. There comes a point when they simply can't take it anymore.

38 posted on 06/13/2010 7:13:34 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Carry_Okie
The people who work in Silicon Valley start-ups make Texans look like laggards. 80-hour work weeks here have been common for decades.

I'm sure the illegal aliens, sluggards and welfare queens greatly appreciate the taxes which they contribute, don't they?

39 posted on 06/13/2010 7:15:58 PM PDT by Vigilanteman (Obama: Fake black man. Fake Messiah. Fake American. How many fakes can you fit in one Zer0?)
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To: Deklane
Wallonia, on the other hand, is poorer and landlocked, and union with France might be its best option.

...except for the fact that Walloons speak Walloon, not French! Walloon is one of those formerly endangered languages that government made mandatory, like Irish and Hebrew.

40 posted on 06/13/2010 7:17:11 PM PDT by mrreaganaut (When can the Martian Republic declare independence from Earth?)
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