Dear Wouter,

let me mix in the political conversation between you and Dag. I'll just throw in my 2 cents on some of the things you say.

What bothers me, however, is the fact that parties such as the N-VA seem to think that everything can be solved by more authonomy, and that an ultimate goal of chopping up this already too small country into a yet even smaller one is desirable. To me, it is not, and that's what my post tried to express.

There's a couple of things bothering me with your argumentation here. The fact Belgium is small, is true. The fact Flanders would be even smaller is logically true too. But... keeping Belgium because of that doesn't make sense. There's smaller countries in Europe and the world, that are perfectly able to be (well-)governed.

To give just a bit of background: My mother grew up in Kuringen, a small town near Hasselt, while my father grew up in Ekeren. After they married, they went to live in the province of Antwerp (in Ekeren eventually, after a short stint in Mortsel). My father's twin brother moved to Wijgmaal near Leuven after his marriage, while my mother's oldest sister married a guy from West-Vlaanderen and moved there. As a result, I have aunts and uncles in all flemish provinces (apart from East-Flanders), which gives me a somewhat unique perspective on the differences that exist within Flanders.

I was born in Limburg, studied in Brussels together with people from Antwerp, East-Flanders and West-Flanders, and moved to Tienen, Vlaams-Brabant. I also have friends and relatives in every Flemish province, and in Liege, so I think your perspective is not as unique as you tend to think.

People sometimes say that there are monetary flows between Flanders and Wallonia, and that therefore we should split up, since that would allow a higher budget for Flanders. I say that there are such differences between Flemish provinces, too; should we therefore boot out some of those provinces as well?

You should make a clear distinction between people and parties that want to split Belgium because of monetary flows, and those that have decent arguments for it. And these arguments exist. You just have to see them. I'll try to give you a couple here.

1. Cultural differences do exist. Wallonia is French, therefore latin culture. Flanders is Dutch, therefore Germanic. If you've ever even remotely looked at history, you won't be able to deny there are huge differences between these two. Not all are better in Germanic cultures (pace of life eg), but the differences are clear.
2. Walloon political fear of change and thus ingovernability. French-speaking politicians have ever since 1830 considered the Germanic culture in Belgium (Flanders) as something that should be eliminated by all means. I urge you to read Anton Roossens on this, there are, documented, examples of this from the past, and from today. One of today's examples is Didier Reynders' flyer recently released stating "If there's one country to give to Walloons, it's one Belgium, one French-speaking Belgium".
3. The above-mentioned political lingual arrogance displayed by French speaking politicians goes far beyond this. What to think of their at first sight perfectly acceptable proposal of making all of Belgium officially bilingual? Do you really think all Walloons will suddenly start to speak Dutch? Forget it! If we allow it, our grandchildren will be speaking French again!

People sometimes say that there are cultural differences between Flanders and Wallonia, and that therefore there is no link between the two. I say that there are cultural differences between Flemish provinces too; should we therefore boot out some of those provinces? As a very stupid example of this one: in Limburg, it is traditional for guests to give a standing ovation to the bride and groom when they first enter the location where the dinner is going to be held. No such tradition exists anywhere else in Flanders. There are more such differences, however.

This is again a very weak argument. Should we, at any price, keep Belgium together just because there are cultural differences anyway? Heck, there are even cultural differences between 2 naighbouring cities. This is as far as I'm concerned neither an argument pro nor contra independance.

People sometimes say that Flanders and Wallonia do not speak the same language. Arguably the best argument in favor of separatism, I would still challenge you to put a person from Limburg in front of someone from West-Flanders, and have them talk to eachother. It's going to be similarly hard for them to understand eachother as it is for them to understand someone from Wallonia.

This is utter B...S... As I said I'm from Limburg myself, and have friends in every Flemish province. I never had difficulties to understand any of them, and you know why? Because we all have the decency to speak "AN". I tend to think using this as an argument tells us more about one's lingual-intellectual capabilities.

Anyway, I'll not further bore my readers with Belgian politics. But I'm still unhappy about the election's results.

I for one am very happy with the results, and don't get me wrong Wouter, I am on the far left side of the political sphere, but, I don't believe in Belgium as a country. To cite The Economist: "If Belgium didn't exist already, would anyone go through the trouble of creating it nowadays?"...