Belgium splitting? It’s like a celebrity marriage on the rocks. It’s deliciously counter-culture to the whole European unification project headquartered in the capital of Brussels. The very idea makes a mockery of the drive for integration that many Europeans feel has been undemocratically rammed down their throats. But is Belgium really going to split? That depends on who you ask, of course.
Belgians went to the polls Sunday to vote for or against the divorce of the nation’s 6.5 million Dutch-speaking Flemish in the north from the 4 million French-speaking Walloons in the south. And the pro-divorce New Flemish Alliance came in first, winning a stunning 28 to 30-plus percent of the vote in Flanders, depending on who's counting.
Belgium has been in and out of marital counseling for years. Most of my Belgian friends are Dutch-speaking Flemish, and so I’ve heard a lot of the Flemish grievances against Belgium and the French-speaking Walloons: Belgium is a fake country cooked up in 1830 either by the British or the French; the Flemings make the money and the Walloons spend it (on welfare); Brussels was a Dutch town taken over by Francophones (true); Flanders would be a small economic power if it was freed from economically depressed Wallonia (that’s probably true).
Unemployment in post-industrial Wallonia is twice that of Flanders. And some less wealthy Walloons have complained of discrimination, and of being forced out of Dutch-speaking areas in the north.
On the federal level, Belgium has become increasingly ungovernable, with four governments and three prime ministers since its last general election, and now facing a massive government deficit.
Some believe that if Flanders leaves, Belgium is history. Paul Belien, a Fleming at Brusselsjournal.com, writes that “if Belgium breaks up it is likely that Wallonia will break up as well, with part of it preferring to go to Germany, part of it to the Grand Duchy of Luxemburg and part of it to France.”
Polls have shown that most Dutch would welcome the unification of the Netherlands and Dutch-speaking Flanders.
But lost in the excitement for what a news junkie would deem a “fun story” is the fact that most people in Belgium did not vote for divorce.
The Flemings will be using their electoral clout to negotiate more autonomy for Flanders, but this troubled marriage is not over, yet.