Sounds strange?
Well actually it isn't. Belgium is a country with two groups of people in it those who speak Vlamish (95% the same as Dutch) and French...
If there is one country in western Europe where a civil war can be expected when nothing is to be changed soon... then it will have to be Belgium. Today there are countrywide elections for a new parliament, and it appears both groups vote for the break up of the country.
http://www.nu.nl/buitenland/2266602/fransen-bereid-wallonie-adopteren.html
Short translation:
Two third of the French people is prepared to accept the Southern part of Belgium to be part of France when the country is to be split between a French part and a Vlamish part. In the French Belgium border area 75% is prepared to accept Southern Belgium to be integrated into France.
Really ? Elections are due today but it does not mean the end of Belgium.
The only risk is one extremist party (NVA of Bart De Wever) block again the government about a question of the voting right of French speaking peoples living in the Flanders around Brussels.
No problem from the French side.
Civil war in Belgium? ;D ;D ;D
Honestly, you foreigners have no idea do you... and I would expect Dutchmen to at least understand the Flemish media, so you guys would know there's not going to be a civil war here anytime soon... we've been argueing about how to organise the country for 175 years, without starting to shoot at each other. A majority of Belgians, north & south alike, don't want the country to split up. All it takes is a bit more respect...
Also, French-speaking voters voting to split up the country? The only party in Wallonia who promotes this usually gets 3% of the vote... And it's true that in Flanders the seperatist N-VA is predicted to gain a landslide victory, but this has more to do with the general disgust with the political circus than with a genuine desire to split.
Civil war at the capital of the EU? Yah right..... :laugh: