Belgian government falls, again

[Andrew J.]

How does the kingship work in Belgium, what with the ethnic divide? Is Albert II Flemish, Walloon, both, or something else entirely?

[Bounty]

He's Belgian. Francophone, but fluent in Dutch. And you may be overstating the 'ethnic' part of the divide; it's a heated but ultimately peaceful linguistic and financial issue, not a Northern Ireland-style conflict.

[wautd]

So now we need new elections, but those same elections aren't technically legal because BHV still isn't solved. Great.

I hope that they use this moment to switch to coincident elections again. Having elections every 2 years was a recipe for chaos and immobilism.

[Bounty]

I'm still trying to figure out what mini-De Croo was thinking. He blew up the government for BHV; but parties that blow up governments lose in elections, and any separatist votes he may have hoped to get by forcing the issue are probably going into NVA anyway. He may be a smooth talker but politically he's more than a bit of a tool.

I don't even know who to vote for now. SP.A is a lame duck, NVA are sad losers (trust me, I've been to their meetings), OpenVLD is run by morons - at this rate I'll be voting Christian-Democrat again just by elimination.

And another thing: the next vote is unconstitutional. So do I even have to vote? Because while voting is compulsory I'd assume that only applies to actual legal elections and not one that is in all likelyhood invalid. And since at least a few of the parties won't run in unconstitutional elections and since it's not certain they'll even get them organized if they don't find staff for the polling stations... oh will this ever be a clusterfuck.

[Twigler]

How does the kingship work in Belgium, what with the ethnic divide? Is Albert II Flemish, Walloon, both, or something else entirely?

The Belgian royal house is originally from Germany and they tend to marry mostly German or Spanish nobility. So in way the royal house is one of those things that offers some form of stability (with a few exceptions like Leopold II and III).

[wautd]

I'm still trying to figure out what mini-De Croo was thinking. He blew up the government for BHV; but parties that blow up governments lose in elections, and any separatist votes he may have hoped to get by forcing the issue are probably going into NVA anyway. He may be a smooth talker but politically he's more than a bit of a tool.

De Croo's choice seemed reckless and opened a whole can of worms, but to be fair, I had the feeling the Walloons were, instead of actually wanting a sollution, they were stalling yet again to postpone the problem forward until the next elections. They don't seem to realize that this continuous status quo is the perfect feeding ground for constant intercommunal bickering, extreme right and political immobilism (the last being in times of crisis the worst).

For all I know Open-VLD's move will gain them votes for everyone who's tired of stalling tactics or hearing "Non".

That said, I havn't got a clue who to vote for now. It's quite depressing to see everyone bickering like small childs while the country turns to ruin.

[Bounty]

I had the feeling the Walloons were, instead of actually wanting a sollution, they were stalling yet again to postpone the problem forward until the next elections.

Obviously. Thing is, what people want to see is a solution to BHV and a working government, and I think we've gotten to the point where it doesn't matter much what solution is found as long as this circus stops, at least for the non-hardliners on either side of the language border. De Croo may have made quite a few people giddy by forcing the issue, but I think those voters are not ones who'd vote for Open VLD in the first place, especially since this is the first time they've shown an openly confrontational agenda RE: BHV. This would have been a stroke of political genius and electoral gold had it come from a party like N-VA (or, god forbid, CD&V) who already have a nominally pro-Flemish stance, not from the party of the small entrepreneur which now comes off a opportunistic and reckless.

By the way, did you see the Claes/Martens/Bracke interview the other day? Or De Croo getting a verbal bollocking by Eyskens on Phara? The old guard is almost oozing contempt for the clusterfuck that's going on now. We need men of their caliber back, too bad Tobback seems to be the last statesman of that breed

[wautd]

I had the feeling the Walloons were, instead of actually wanting a sollution, they were stalling yet again to postpone the problem forward until the next elections.

De Croo may have made quite a few people giddy by forcing the issue, but I think those voters are not ones who'd vote for Open VLD in the first place(

True, that

By the way, did you see the Claes/Martens/Bracke interview the other day? Or De Croo getting a verbal bollocking by Eyskens on Phara? The old guard is almost oozing contempt for the clusterfuck that's going on now. We need men of their caliber back, too bad Tobback seems to be the last statesman of that breed

Elas, I missed it.