Goodbye Belgium - a failed state

Ed West -Culture Wars
Jun 11, 2009 at 10:56:24
Posted in: Politics

Europe's most famous fake country took a step closer to being put out of its misery last week as the loveless marriage between Flanders and Walloonia continued to fall apart.
Reports the Brussels Journal
Yesterday, apart from the European elections, Belgium also held elections for the regional parliaments in Flanders, the Dutch-speaking northern half of the country, and Wallonia, the French-speaking southern half.
These elections highlighted the fact that Flanders and Wallonia are two different nations. While the left won in Wallonia, it was crushed in Flanders.
In the Walloon Parliament (75 seats) the leftist green party Ecolo won 14 seats (+11), the Parti Socialiste (PS) remained the biggest with 30 seats (-4), the liberal-conservative Mouvement Reformateur received 18 seats (-2), the centrist christian-democrat CDH won 13 seats (-1) and the Front National lost its 4 seats. The greatest surprise was that the PS was only marginally affected by the tsunami of corruption and other scandals (even one involving child pornography) in which it has been entangled.
A paedophile scandal in Belgium - what next? Meanwhile in Flanders pro-independence parties won over a third of the vote, meaning that it will be hard to form a government without one of them. The most popular remain the pretty nasty Vlaams Belang, the sort of dodgy operation young Tintin would have supported during his Commie-kicking days. But they are in decline, partly thanks to a telling campaign:
The VB, meanwhile, feels it has been unfairly treated during the election campaign. The mainstream media, which all receive government subsidies, refused to run VB adds and hardly devoted any attention to Belgium’s main opposition party. In the past, parties were assigned broadcasting time to run a short informative television spot of their own on the state television channel. These programs, too, were abolished for this year’s campaign. A journalist openly admitted: “In these broadcasts, Filip Dewinter could openly express his political views. This was sufficient reason to ban these broadcasts.”
So to fight fascism the government pays the media to influence the voters - lucky we in Britain have the super-impartial BBC. But no wonder Belgium is so institutionally corrupt and unworkable when even the media relies on the daddy state.
I won't lament this fake state if and when it falls. Belgium was a good idea in 1830, when it was artificially created because the Dutch couldn't bear to have the French as neighbours - and who could blame them? Nation states with defined borders and tribalism-free politics work. Artificial countries, whether in Europe, Africa or elsewhere, are intrinsically corrupt.
And wouldn't it be wonderful if, at the very heart of the European project, the very principle behind it was shown to be unworkable with two tribes, let alone 27?