http://edition.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/eu....ap/index.html

Could this be a revolt against Stella Artois purchase of Budweiser...they'd rather break their country than drink rubbish beer?
If it stops being Belgium does it become Flemland?

Could I possibly sneak in and set up my own totalitarian state whilst they were all arguing?

About time

I mean Belgium resembles an old couple that really REALLY hates each other's guts after a shotgun wedding, but stays together for the kids (Brussels).

Flanders definitely resents Wallonia's socialist attitudes and thinks it should get off its fat unemployed ass.

It's like in this "I am Canadian" spoof: "I believe in distinct society, as long as somebody else pays for it. I believe in language police, not equal rights."

Flanders independent, Wallonia can apply to be part of France (just the type of country that can use some more deadbeat bureaucrats) and Brussels gets to be Euroland D.C.

Capital of Flanders? Leuven! (Antwerp's too Zurich for words)

Leuven! A fine city. Nowhere near enough time to get through all the pubs.

When this whole mess (alright, this current mess) started a year ago, I was working in the Netherlands, where some media commentators were licking their lips at the thought of reincorporating Flanders into the Netherlands after losing it some 170yrs ago. I guess they are again, now.

Definitely the most fun city!

Fat chance of that happening. NL and Flanders have about as much in common as the germanspeaking part of Switzerland with Germany.
Culturally, they're worlds apart. I don't see the Flemish agreeing to be Cloggies, eat maatjes herring, drink Heineken or clog the roads with caravans. And what really riles your average Flemish is Dutch "zuinigheid" (pennypinching), an alien concept if you like frieten (fries), real beer and other things that make life swell.

I don't think their 15 years (from 1815 till 1830) of rulership entitles them to anything at all. Dutch arrogance indeed. Akin to a German saying "aber Ihr seid doch auch Deutsch".

But I would have so much more fun teasing my Flemish friends about being Dutchies then.

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All's fair in love and war

Just as long as you buy them a Hoegaarden afterwards to unruffle their feathers

Maybe to the populist politicos, but your average Vlaming out in the provinces thinks more along the lines of "good riddance" or "steekt 'et in uw reet". Of course aforementioned opinions might be a bit skewed, what with hearing them over a Stella and friet stoofvlees.

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The issue of Brussels is perhaps the biggest sticking point in any possible partition. Neither side would want to let go.

Some parts of the Commonwealth might be a bit miffed if Flanders becomes Dutch, considering that we went to war once to protect the sovereignty of Belgium. Due to that war, there's also a small German-speaking region in the east of Wallonia, which has even less chance than Flanders of breaking away from Wallonia.