Federal polls in Belgium

[The Vagabond]

Originally posted by Dry
I would say this is our common history with Flanders: none of us wants to be either German, French or Dutch.

So it's a reasonable unifying idea. Besides, you've got already quite a history of living together (almost two centuries).

[The Vagabond]

AFAIK, the Flemish are predominantly catholic whereas the Dutch are protestants. This fact doesn't play in favor of their possible reunification in a single state.

It's pretty much like the Serbia/Croatia situation.

[Colonâ„¢]

I doubt it'd be a factor at all. Their obnoxious use of the colour orange would be.

[The Vagabond]

But if you mix two of the colors of the Belgian flag, what you get is just the orange.

[Hueij]

Originally posted by Colonâ„¢
I doubt it'd be a factor at all. Their obnoxious use of the colour orange would be.

Is that envy I smell?? After all, the red of your "Rode Duivels" isn't much to look at either. Anyway, we don't need you and we don't want you...

[Colonâ„¢]

You got it all wrong. We don't need you and we don't want you. We're just not sure who's we.

[Adalbertus]

Flemish: The only real Dutch
Walloons: The only real French

That's what really unites Belgium.

[Colonâ„¢]

This is ****ing retarded. The Flemish socialist party loses 7% while the Walloon socialist party loses only 5%.

[Colonâ„¢]

I think the odd are for a socialist - christen democrat - green coalition.

[Dr Strangelove]

How did the Walloons wind up speaking French? The area was under French jurisdiction only briefly during the reign of Louis XIV and again under the Directory and Napoleon. Otherwise it was part of the HRE and the Duchy of Brabant along with the Netherlands and the Flemish.

[Adalbertus]

Short answer:
They did do so, even before there were HRE, Belgium, France, Netherlands or Germany.


Long answer:
Nationalism in the sense of "Tribe"/Nation = State = Language is an idea that basically doesn't work in Europe (but only few realise this).

Specifically, the Franks (as an alliance of a bunch of Germanic tribes which were far less homogeneous than they would like to have been) originated from, roughly, today's Netherlands and extended (as a population) along the Rhine up to Mainz, to what now is Belgium and, in decreasing density, to France up to the Loire, and, lastly, along the Main river in Germany.
Look out for place names as -ville, -viller(s), and -court, to know where they have been in France. Note, this is *not* the same as the extent of their political power which extended further.
The Gallo-Roman population, though conquered, had the higher cultural level, and so a lot of the Francs learned Latin - or they tried to, forming (Northern) French that way. The frontier on the linguistic level remained fairly stable since 840 latest. Most notable exceptions are Brussels, and the fact that during the last 60 years, the young Alsatians and Lorrainians don't learn German (or their dialect) as their mother tongue any more.

Political frontiers were far more volatile, and rarely followed the linguistic ones, and before 19th century, populations weren't forced to move when they spoke the "wrong" language. State, language and nationality were unrelated up to then.

[Colonâ„¢]

Please don't use modern definitions interchangeably with historical definitions. Flanders and Brabant were The Netherlands, along with Liege, Haunait, Luxemburg, Holland, Utrecht, Zeeland etc. The Walloons didn't exist. The lingual border also wasn't anywhere as neatly defined. Though the mythologists may prefer to see otherwise a potpurry of dialects was spoken in these areas. Dutch dialects gained an upperhand in the territories of Flanders and Brabant with the rise of the trade cities, although a substantial francophone minority remained.

[alva]

AFAIK, the Flemish are predominantly catholic whereas the Dutch are protestants. This fact doesn't play in favor of their possible reunification in a single state.

Religion plays no part in anything anymore here.

We just don't like the Dutch, pretty simple eh.
The only thing we secretly admire is their - often unwarranted - self-confidence. Case in point would that many of the managers responsible for food and beverage in Belgian (big, multi-national) hotels are Dutch. That has always been a complete mystery to me, yes, they know how to organise but that's about it.

I think the odd are for a socialist - christen democrat - green coalition.

Not gonna be enough for state reforms (not likely either with the PS in gouverment).
The next couple of weeks are going to be very interesting and either potentially a set up for a drastic change or a complete non-event.

Is that envy I smell?? After all, the red of your "Rode Duivels" isn't much to look at either. Anyway, we don't need you and we don't want you...

That indeed was the last true Belgian castle.
Don't worry though, your rule of football is in the past as well, better get used to it.

[Winston]

So it looks like Belgians followed the prevailing European trend and took a turn to the right.

Congratulations Belgium.

[Colonâ„¢]

Matters aren't looking to good. Leterme and the christian democrats are undisputed leader in Flanders while Di Rupo and the socialists look set to narrowly maintain their lead in Wallonia. Both are unacceptable on the other side of the country so how you're going to form a gov't with this is a tough question.