The Belgian Break-Up

Which ones make the waffles and the beer? They're the ones I'm going with.

Czech Republik and Slovakia merely needed a parliamentary vote to dissolve their union of Czechoslovakia in 1992.

Regarding Belgium this is pretty much groundhog day. This debate has been on the table virtually since the conception of modern Belgium. It is telling that an April´s fool prank from a local TV station from a few years ago, where they pretended the breaking up of the union in a breaking news special merely got recognized with yawns. But I guess Luca or our other Belgian Chewers will have a thing to say about this and are way more qualified than I am to speak with any authority on this issue.

Sufficient to say, as long as we don´t have to take care of the German speaking community around Eupen and Hasselt, Belgium can do whatever it wants.

Probably "zoot alors!" or "sacre bleu!"

The best Belgian beer come from the apolitical Trappist Monks.

The best cyclists are the Flemish.

Now the real question which side will Van Damme take?

As a Flemish inhabitant of Belgium, my take is: Stormin's got a point. I can't see anything as radical as Belgium splitting up happening here anytime soon as long as the economy's not going dramatically down the drain. Up to that point, nobody's going to want to go through with all the reforms that would go with an effective split-up. There's no such thing as a 'quiet revolution', and throwing up barricades, that'll take a whole lot more than just the general dissatisfaction that prevails at the moment. Other Belgians on the forum might disagree with me, and I confess a worsening of the economy over the next few years could change quite a lot really soon, but that's my take for the moment.

The bigger picture is this: the leading Flemish conservative party for years did a terrible job solving the crisis and fixing the economy, as well as stalling a bit more by focusing instead on a territory dispute with the French-speaking community about Brussels, which got blown all out of proportion. The victorious party NVA were about the only conservatives left that one could realistically vote for (there's some fringe parties that you just know won't gather any weight- which is the problem with having so many parties in such a small country). Also, their leader Bart De Wever got massively popular due to his appearances in a television game show last year (sad but true, that's how it works..), I suspect that helped.
And true, they have a separatist streak... but their first proposed step is what the country desperately needs right now, which is a shake-up of the institutional and economical relations between the different language communities. I guess that's what most people voted for at the moment.
The danger is, that if NVA succeeds, they'll get so popular that they can pursue their separatist program further. But the political system in Belgium has some sort of built-in countermechanism to such sudden extreme directions shifts, so we'll see. Also important: in Wallony (French Belgium) the big victory was for a left socialist party (be aware that these terms have a somewhat different meaning in Europe than in the States), and they will probably be the ones who'll put a prime minister in place for the country. That could lead to more bickering in parliament, and more valuable time lost in handling the economy and state reform, but we'll see. We've been called on to vote for three years in a row now, so there isn't much goodwill left by the public. We urgently expect some results now.

I've seen the foreign media focus quite hard on the 'separatist' results of the elections, but that's really overblown. I'm personally not quite happy with the results, but I don't think it's dramatic either. There'll be competent people having a go at governing, it's just competent people I don't like.

As long as this involves a move to calling themselves Miserable Fat Belgian Bastards, I'm okay with it.

Seems to me you roll with the wrong Belgians, Dick.

It's from Monty Python's Flying Circus, chef.

Luca? What did you do?

Does not change the fact that he rolls with the wrong Belgians!

Well, the Sprouts and the Phlegms won't have me!

Nothing will happen. We'll probably just vote again three months from now. 's How we roll.

edit: Bart De Wever, Mistah Big Bawss Separatist, has stated he's gonna reach out to the Walloons. So yeah, ain't nuthin' happenin'.

Belgium's very much like Heaven, in that respect. But with better beer and food.

For the record: I am against the idea of Belgium breaking up.

well if worse comes to worst, Kate, I'm sure that quote will give us some leverage still!

Haha, I doubt it, but I just wanted to add my two cents. I generally am adverse to change of the sort they are proposing. Perhaps there are valid reasons for doing it, but I'd rather not have to deal with the idea that Belgium no longer exists.

The ramifications are too great to contemplate. What are we going to call Belgian waffles if this proposed breakup goes through?

Walloon waffles has a nice alliterative ring to it.

Yeah, Phlegm waffles doesn't have quite the ring to it.

ETA: okay, Luca has the better idea for that, but still. Belgian Beer already is a nice alliteration, and we'd give that up!

But no worry. No one has proposed a breakup yet, and like Luca said: the ones who vaguely hinted at it before the elections are hastily reaching out for a compromise one day after.
I really feel that the moment this land would turn to taking drastic measures, is when the rest of the world civilisation has already crumbled down completely and the Road Warriors are at the gates. And even then, they'd do it reluctantly.
Not because we're a peaceloving people, mind. We just can't be bothered.

Well that's reassuring, so thanks for the post election info


And I like Walloon waffles, but I still don't like the idea of all that needless change.

This really encapsulates Belgium right here. And I love that you said "land" instead of "country", like we're Rohan or some shit.

But we are, Luca. We are.