Flemish separatists make big gains in Belgian local elections

EurActiv ^ | 15 October 2012 | (EurActiv.com with Reuters)

[Olog-hai]

A founding EU member, Belgium, is struggling to maintain political unity as a separatist party scored major victories in municipal elections yesterday (14 October) and its leader is set to become mayor of the second city, raising the pressure on a fragmented national government.

The Nieuw-Vlaamse Alliantie (New Flemish Alliance or N-VA) won the most votes in a vast swathe of districts in the Dutch-speaking region of Flanders, including the port city of Antwerp.

The party's leader, Bart De Wever, was on course to become the city's mayor after the N-VA were on 36% of the vote with most of the votes counted. "We are the new people's party of Flanders," De Wever told cheering supporters. …

[2banana]

Get out of the EU

Kick out the muslims

[Adder]

So if the Flemish separatists succeed, will the new country be called Flem? Capital city, Lugey?

Curious minds etc...

[GeronL]

Let’s take the Scottish Independence thing... they want to be ruled by Brussels drectly apparently

[Wuli]

Belgium already has a federal system, from its 1994 constitutional changes, with a lot (more than in the previous century) of autonomy concerning local social, taxation and education policies in each region - the French speaking are of the Waloons, the Flemish (Dutch) area and the bi-lingual area of Brussels (with some “minority” rights for German speakers as well).

I suspect any greater portion of Flemish politicians in the national government will not mean “indpendence” as much as it might mean more adjustments to how much autonomy and in what areas of government policy the separate federal regions would have.

The whole of the area was once under the rule of Holland and it rebelled.

[Olog-hai]

Flanders, I suspect. And that’s with a phlegmatic outlook.