Flemish Separatists Win in Belgium

NYT ^ | June 13, 2010 | STEPHEN CASTLE

[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.”

[MadMax, the Grinning Reaper]

Who gets custody of the chocolates?

[Carry_Okie]

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

Obviously, not a bit. I just don't like people characterizing Californian's as lazy. A lot of us work a schedule that would kill a most people.

[Clemenza]

The only reason Belgium was created in the first place was as a Catholic buffer zone between the predominantly protestant northern countries and southern Europe. Now that most of Belgium is secular (making “Catholic” unity a negligible force), and the Flems grow tired of supporting their Walloon countrymen in the south, we should not be surprised at the recent elections.

[Clemenza]

Actually, we people in the NYC area work our a-ses off paying federal income taxes to subsidize all of those lovely government facilities throughout the south. Compare the per capita incomes and levels of people in poverty in New York versus Texas and Mississippi and then get back to me.

As far as the local leeches who are dependent on the state for employment and their gold plated pensions, we pay for them out of our state and municipal taxes, but THAT is OUR self-inflicted problem.

[Clemenza]

Stella reminds me more of Heineken. Prefer Chimay myself.

[April Lexington]

I suspect it won’t be long before some of us in Texas start to feel the same way about people on the East and West Coasts of the US who don’t want to work real hard either...

You are NOT alone...

[Clemenza]

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

And the South refers to those enclaves of wealth and intelligence of Jackson, Birmingham, and Memphis, doesn't it? Don't get me started on the Rio Grande Valley in Texas, or much of Dallas, Houston, Beaumont, etc. which might as well be Zimbabwe or Juarez.

[April Lexington]

...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.

Well, I sure wouldn't admit to speaking waLOON!

[MARTIAL MONK]

Now we gets Flemland.

Harrumph.

[April Lexington]

and perhaps part to Germany

Anschluss!!!

[rcrngroup]

The people who work in Silicon Valley start-ups make Texans look like laggards. 80-hour work weeks here have been common for decades.

Yah, but most of the Silicon Valley folks still vote for socialist demoRATs, who want to tax & spend us into oblivion. I know.... I was on assignment in Silicon Valley for 3 1/2 years. One other thing that I noticed was that a lot of folks (in the company I worked for at least) just kind of hung out at the office after 5 pm - 9 pm, either bs'ing or just working on stuff that could just as easily be done the next day.

[Carry_Okie]

I was on assignment in Silicon Valley for 3 1/2 years.

Got you beat there.

[Gumdrop]

Maybe this is a good thing. After the defeat of Napolen, the Treaty of Vienna stole over 1/3 of Luxembourg and put it into Belgium in order to get more French-speaking people into the new country. Those folks never were given a plebecite, just an edict that they were no longer Luxembourgers, but Belgians.

The first immigrants from that part of Belgium listed themselves as Luxembourgers - it continued as such until about 1870 when they began to list themselves as Belgians.

I think Luxembourg ought to demand the return of it’s territory and its citizens if Belgium breaks up.

[montag813]

This is FANTASTIC result. The Flemish northerners are pro-free market, pro-American, and anti-Muslim. Freed from supporting a French south welfare state, an independent Dutch north would immediately be among the most fiscally sound states in the EU. And they are wonderful people too.

[Nepeta]

Who gets custody of the chocolates?

This is the really important question.

[tpmintx]

Hi Okie,

I lived in Cupertino for a year, and West San Jose for 4. I know that the valley carries a big part of the country. However, California is in deep trouble because so many people in the rest of the state are not pulling 80-hour weeks. Or even 40. They may be showing up for 40, but that’s all.

Move to Texas. No state Income Tax.

[Tribune7]

But but but didn’t Vice President Biden say that Brussels is the capital of the world???

[okie01]

But but but didn’t Vice President Biden say that Brussels is the capital of the world???

Which says nothing about Brussels. But quite a bit about Vice-President Biden...

[B Knotts]

Yeah, but you know that when these guys get into office, they'll waffle.

*ducks*

[Carry_Okie]

Move to Texas.

Five generations in this State. We're not conceding the good real estate to the leftists and neither should you.