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 ...
Thanks for the Ping.
This is a Protestant/Catholic divide as well.
What about the King of the Belgians? What would happen to him? The troubles have accelerated since the death of King Baudouin, a beloved figure in all of Belgium. His brother, Albert, is now King of the Belgians, and has a dunce of a son as crown prince who would inherit.
“What it really goes to show is that mulitculturalism is generally a failure. A nation of different langages and values can exist for a while, and the groups can tolerate eachother, but it does not make for a cohesive society. I suspect that in the end this will happen to Canada as well.”
And what about us? Oprima dos por ingles!
“Flemish Separatists ?”
That’s what the world needs - more flemingos!
...what about us indeed.
Chimay, Delerium Tremens and Nocturn, Allagash, Ommegang (even the Trader Joe’s labeled stuff), they’re all good.
Correct. It is about accountability, from which we repent and change our ways. To run and leave the problems one helped cause behind is to inflict them upon someone else. I spend not a little time teaching leftists that they are dupes for corporate corruption, in that powers accrued to the state are inevitably powers for sale that betray their initial justification. It makes their heads explode, but I know my facts and they listen.
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