After Belgium: Will Flanders and the Netherlands Reunite?

[Theobald]

Originally Posted by Franze

It´s possible the reunification in the current times? I don´t think so, many thing will change with that and It would begin a series of happenings.

Very good point. I think that everyone (European Union, the USA, NATO, ...) will try to prevent Belgium from exploding as it would further mean a nationalist wave in Western Europe and beyond. Especially since Brussels is the headquarters of both the EU and NATO.

[Dr Fred]

Originally Posted by Savorgnan

You just have to see a Belgium-France football game in Liège.France would get a 125% support from the Walloons.Vox populi...

Actually this isn't the case. Even though I as a Walloon would support a national association with the French (there are a lot of french people in my hometown and besides a few idiosyncratic differences we actually share the same culture), in the particular case of football, France is seen as the "arrogant" rival we are just too happy to stand up to... but even the most "pro-nederlander" Flemish will see the Netherlands as the team to beat. For some reasons, even though I feel 0% Flemish, I support the Belgian national team even with a majority of Flemish, and this is the case with most french-speaking belgians I know here.

What links the Flemish and the Walloons together is a shared "underdog-who-has-everything-to-prove" mentality.

[Menydh]

A rare thing to see a Walloon. You often hear others speaking about them, but people has never seen one. As if they were a legend.

Now seriously, the only Walloon that I remember having ever met around here is the Consul of Belgium. Which is funny since nearly all of the Belgians resident here must be Flemish, and they are quite a large community. And if I didn't know that he is a Belgian, I would think that he is French.

And well, since the Flemish are the largest ethnic group in Belgium, I guess that we will have to blame them for the bad driving skills for which the Belgians are known.

[Dr Fred]

Originally Posted by Mynydd

A rare thing to see a Walloon. You often hear others speaking about them, but people has never seen one. As if they were a legend.

Now seriously, the only Walloon that I remember having ever met around here is the Consul of Belgium. Which is funny since nearly all of the Belgians resident here must be Flemish, and they are quite a large community. And if I didn't know that he is a Belgian, I would think that he is French.

And well, since the Flemish are the largest ethnic group in Belgium, I guess that we will have to blame them for the bad driving skills for which the Belgians are known.

Yes I know, reading what people have to say about Walloons, I almost feel like we are some kind of an alien race
It's possible most french-speaking Belgians associate with the French, without actually identifying themselves as French at all. Some of my friends went to Tenerife a week ago, and there were a lot of Flemish, and a few French, not many "walloons". One of my friend has a distant Spanish ancestry and he is quite tanned under the sun, and a bouncer didn't want him to enter a club because he looked spanish . He asked "what nationality?", he answered "Belgian, why that?... " "ok then..."
We thought, that's weird, spaniards are rejected in their own country?!

As for the driving skills, I was chatting with an American once... I told him about the bad reputation the Belgians had on the road, and he said "they can't be worse than those guys in Albany, New York."
What's funny is, Albany, NY was founded historically by...Belgians.
There must be a pattern...