Why a Far-Right Separatist Party is on the Rise in Belgium
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- Опубліковано 6 чер 2024
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Europe has many secessionist movements - and the same is true of Belgium, where a separatist party is on the rise. In this video, we take a look at whether Flemish people really want independence, explain the party's growth and what it means for Belgium going forward.
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1 - www.brusselstimes.com/307885/...
1 - www.belgium.be/en/about_belgi...
2 - www.belgium.be/en/about_belgi...
3 - www.belgium.be/en/about_belgi...
4 - en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Opinion...
5 - / 1771248321719370057
6 - / 1760000104998809739
6 - / 1771247902804840929
7 - www.vrt.be/vrtnws/nl/2024/02/...
8 - www.nieuwsblad.be/cnt/dmf2024...
8 - www.hln.be/binnenland/de-weve...
9 - www.hln.be/binnenland/magnett...
10 - / 1760000104998809739
10 - / 1771247902804840929
11 - https:/ EuropeElects/status/1760005164579336264
11 - www.brusselstimes.com/933879/...
00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - Belgian Political System
02:16 - Flemish Nationalism & Vlaams Belang
03:39 - Does Flanders Really Want Independence?
04:46 - What Does it Mean Going Forward?
07:33 - Sponsored Content
Belgium is like a country with high functioning anxiety. You see the stress, you see the self-doubt, and yet it still keeps going...
We’re quite a stubborn people.
Heck, one could argue that our most stable political period in recent memory was when we didn’t have a government for a while. The caretaker government kept things going steadily and there was much much less political drama for a while.
Quirky little country, love living here.
And its people still have a shockingly high level of Stockholm syndrome, despite the "nation" functioning pretty poorly.
And for that I can only say one thing: België barst - De Nederlanden één!
Groet aan alle Vlamingen en succes aankomende verkiezingen, en vergeet de NSV!-betoging op 25 april in Antwerpen niet!
I’ve heard it described as the ‘most successful failed state’.
@@tomh2121 That's ... not a bad description actually. (yes, I'm Flemish/Belgian)
No wonder Congo is the way it is today. An unstable country ruled another unstable country 😂
Fun fact: the (tiny) German speaking community elect their own seat in the EU. This technically means the people living there are the most influential in Europe
That's interesting, in which EU institution?
Edit: thanks to everyone for clarifying it’s the Parliament, suspected it was that but wanted to double check
yeah but thats literally point of EU, for germans to be most influential in europe to begin with?
@@Enkabard ironically not at all. What this comment is talking about is the fact that seats in the EU parliament are not distributed equally. Member states with a larger population do have more seats in the parliament but less seats per capita to make sure the EU parliament is not simply an extension of German politics or some other reason. Now the German speaking part of Belgium has the highest EU parliament seats per capita and therefore, one vote in Kelmis (Belgium) is technically worth as much as 10ish votes from Aachen which is just across the border in Germany.
*Per capita
It kinda reminds me how Wyoming in the United States, by technicality, has more voting power in the electoral college than, say California due to population.
Babe wake up, new video about "OMG BELGIUM IS BREAKING UP ???" dropped (since 1830)
💀
(for real this time (gone sexual))
Yes dear 😞
@@IceGuadian I need to hear more
It’s like all those UA-cam videos about with China is a superpower or China is collapsing
I would like to congratulate TLDR News for the best explanation of how our country works to other people. Most Belgians aren't even capable to explain this so clear!
Stupid sexy Flanders
I'm sorry, but you are easily impressed. The information is as basic and general as it can get. Which is not a problem in itself, but it barely takes any time so don't act as if you learned so much with this. It begins to annoy me how TLDR makes so many easy videos with low effort and still 25% of the video is sponsorships... it's just an ad basically.
Anything besides the basics of how our system works was complete conjecture and could only come from someone who knows absolutely fk all about our system. It's a throwaway video at best. Completely meaningless and with misunderstandings aplenty of how things really stand.
But yeah. Wow. They figured out how the country works. A 2 minute google search. 👏👏👏.
The fact so many people are politically illiterate doesn't make this mushroom a genius for being passably capable at his job. All it does is once again show we have a broken system that few truly understand and a continuously worsenint education system.
@@jaro551you are right but even so there are many people in belgium who dont even understand these basic things that where said in the video
Cool
perfect depiction of duolingo saying ‘dutch or the crutch’ 😂
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
🤔
Fun thing : there is no Dutch course for French speakers in duolinguo. I know, I'm a French speaking belgian and I had to use the course for English speakers in order to have a mean to progress in Dutch...
My favorite part about this video is all the Belgians in the comments saying “haha yeah it’s a mess but it’s home”
Belgium is a mess, Flanders is our home you mean
As if everything in Flanders runs smooth @@Adomir
@@jonathanjoos2284 Better than the south even when we pay most of their bills.
@@gunterification it's not an enveloppe with money tho. Tbf Flanders is also going in the red. Things will change, PS will have to fight off ptb/pvda and MR. and according to polls, it's not PS all the way. Flanders will be worse of with independence tho. For exemple environnement, for that and only they must pay a fortune to get close to EU norms.
@@jonathanjoos2284 We are basically two separate countries already. There's too many differences. We should just make it final and end it here. Wallonia can have their green/leftist utopian dream and we have our economy and get to keep our wealth. There's no need for belgium anymore.
If Bruxelles is bilingual it is because the population speaks Arabic and French.
😂😂😂😂😂
In terms of majority languages that is absolutely correct 😂
2 times a week I am so excited I get to spend about 30 min in Brussel-Zuid waiting for my connection, my weekly little adventure 🥰
@@Marcus12813 What do you mean by that? What's so special about that particular train station.
@@dontlaughtoomuch11 Cause just like in Gare du Nord in Paris, if it was not for the shitty weather, you could genuinely believe you were somewhere in the Maghreb region, based on the local fauna.
To make things more complicated is the motto of belgium.
"unity" it says lol
@@MrBurnsExcellent We are very united against the french though
Never have i seen so much seperation.
This is better then more of the same believe me.
@@KeithThienpondt ?
1:55 duolingo in its least agressive state
When it comes to Flemish independence there's always the Brussels problem to take into account on why this will never happen. As you can see on the map, Brussels lies in Flanders and is even its historical and current capital. So the Flemish nationalists will never give up on Brussels. But the reality also is that for a variety of reasons Brussels has become ever more French speaking over the decades, with currently only a tiny minority of inhabitants having Dutch as their first language. So the nationalists have no chance of convincing the people of Brussels to come along with them democratically.
Even the Dutch minority here in Brussels is mostly against a Flanders independence
The French speakers can be demigrated from Brussels. Same with the Arabs.
You seem to forget that Brussels has no alternative than to come along with Flanders either immediately or to come begging afterwards. A Flemisch nationalist does not have to convince anyone from Brussels to follow. The simple fact that the moment Flanders abandons Brussels that Brussels will become a third world region will do wonders to 'convince' people to remember where their loyalties should lie. Brussels has nothing to offer on its own. And Wallonia is not going to want that anchor attached to their leg either. People from Brussels aren't Walloons, Wallonia has no physical connection to Brussels and Brussels offers nothing to Wallonia beyond a massive pile of debt of which Wallonia has no shortage itself. Brussels airport to name one example isn't located in Brussels, but in Flanders, most of the employees in Brussels come from Flanders, most of the trade comes from the Flemish region,... If Flanders were to cut itself off from Brussels there would be no Brussels only the Prypyat of Western Europe without the nuclear fallout. Also saying Brussels has become more French speaking is very, very deceiving. A lot of people in Brussels speak neither Dutch nor French very well which is one of the reasons why the unemployment is so high there. More of them know a little French than there are that know a little Dutch, but nonetheless counting them as 'French speaking' is highly deceiving.
You seem to be under the illusion that Brussels, the de facto capital of Europe, would be under a blockade from Flanders.
You're not being entirely honest in your analysis either, are you?
Like you said, it is historically dutch. Thats a clean answer for to who it belongs
Belgian here :) two small mistakes: the N-VA does want flemish independence. They currently focus on confederalism, because they realize that most flemish do not want flemish independence. Also, at 7:00 the names N-VA and MR/OVLD have been mixed up in the graph. For the rest: great video!
They strategically retreated to advocating "confederalism" but they're quite open about being nationalists who want an independent Belgium. Also a true confederal state wouldn't be viable anyways and would probably quickly crumble to full nationalism.
Nva for some reason let me think of the vietcong. Also as a dutchman may i ask why the hatred to dutch people from Belgium people (hint look at qoute from you national team that said they are happy they lost because so they are not with Dutch people)
Walloons once tried to wipe out the Flemish language in Belgium, calling them uncivilized. I can understand why some people from Flanders hates them.
@@Please002 No, it has nothing to do with that. The flemish nationalist parties make the argument that Flanders sends too much money to Wallonia, money they can use in flanders. Wallonia also has a higher unemployment rate (or used to have a much higher rate) than flanders, fueling the argument that flanders is essentially providing the wallonians with free welfare. Given the current climate of increased inflation and more expensive standard of living, many people are signing up to that line of thinking.
Indeed and the Vlaams belang is not a party that teckels this issue it is a rasisme party
Thank you for the overall summery.
While i know the individual parties, it is always a pain to figure out how they all do in the overall picture.
This might have saved me over 40 hours of foreigner (me) asking questions about the current state of political turmoil.
Probably not. For every thousand "will country X split apart" videos on yoube...
The probability is very low but with every single event and year it is more probable
Flemish here, this is a thing that comes up like every few years and never goes anywhere, last time it was the NVA calling for it.
Vlaams Belang are a bunch of idiots no literate person would ever reasonably vote for, unfortunately we have a lot of people that fit that bill, we have a lot of racist idiots here.
Our political system is a giant tangled mess tho, that much is true.
@@AmirSattPeople just care about a reasonable degree of confidence, black swan not included lol
Hmmm yes, yoube
Fun exercises for UA-cam content but rarely ever happens. In the last 30 years only Sudan has split.
I think its a pretty accurate report on the state of belgian politics. I get the impression of 1/3-1/2 of VB voters you talk to are motovated as an anti establishment vote more than anything else. If you look at polling a Vivaldi 2 is mathematically possible. Question is more if the parties will agree on who does what
If the Cordon holds (which it most likely will) a vote for VB is essentially a vote for Vivaldi 2. The only party big enough to make a difference is NVA. I'm not a fan of Vivalidi but even less of those bunch of Waffen-SSers. NVA it is for me.
Anti establishment, and a severe distaste for brown people.
As much as I wish differently, people here be racist. Every other week or so I've got a coworker going on some type of rant about "those brown monkeys"...
NVA had a lot of time to prove their worth and proved to be a just another wing of the same sick bird that our establishment is.
@@sneepmol8320 Aren't they basically the same? I don't know if flemish have the comparison but it's like Marine Lepen and Eric Zemmour in France, the second is here so that the first can seem moderate even tho she was the extremist at one point
@@zarbi64when it comes to immigration, NVA has some pretty disgusting views. We saw it clearly with their migration minister Theo Franken who instead of solving the crisis, decided to build more prisons for undocumented immigrants, prisons where child spend their whole teenage years and where the suicide rate is very high
Its the right of man to want not being part of any french speaking country. I think Thomas Paine once said that.
I'm not a huge of the French language and yet I still think this kind of pseudo-intellectual quotes can be used to dehumanize people, in this case French-speaking people. It's even dumber when you consider that the genetic makeup of French-speaking Europeans is overall similar to those of low Germanic countries, especially in Wallonia.
@@demeurecorentin based on the fact that you didn‘t get the joke i woud asume that you from north amerika australia or a english or german city with more than 100000 people. So let me asure you that this level of s**t talking is on the rather tame side of things. And if you dont belive me just translate some comments under a frensh polish german … video of a similar topic. 😂
The NVA has pushed for independence as well, they’ve long argued that independence is inevitable but that in the meantime confederalism is the most viable option. Make no mistake, they want the same as the VB. It used to be openly stated on their website, probably still is.
I hope they get the majority together with VB then we can end this nightmare once and for all.
@@gunterification I'd rather we stick together and work towards a better future but I don't see either of our politicians bothering to fix the cultural mess we're in.
NVA is Flemish in name only. They want to cooperative with the Wallonian socialist party, to keep everything as is, and keep the money-grabbing culture alive.
@@gunterification The nightmare than begins. Flanders would be out of the EU. New admission will fail because of a veto of Spain. Every blocade of access to Brussels would be replied by troops. It would be the nightmare for Flanders and another war in Europe.
@@CaribouEno and we know that vlaams belang is nothing more than a putin fan club.
As a Fleming I've watched several of these videos, and I have to say yours is remarkably accurate across the board, especially for a foreigner. Congratulations.
I personally would have no issues with independence, but I have no problem admitting that most of the population doesn't want this. In fact, the main effect of the rise of Vlaams Belang has to been to discredit Flemish nationalism in the eyes of the center and left, so it's probably had a negative impact, if anything.
Flemish nationalism is a fools errant anyway, at least in it's current form (i.e forming a new sovereign state disconnected from Belgium), the EU's policy on a brand new sovereign state is total diplomatic reset, meaning flanders will be totally economically isolated from the rest of Europe, and if the far right are leading this independence, the EU will be hesitant to allow flanders in due to the tendency of far right forces to undermine EU law and standards
As a Belgian living in Flanders I can say your explanation is good. I also think a lot of people are just going to vote for the VB because they are sick of "the system" or migration. Flemish independence is only something people want if they have been long time VB voters. And just very, very, unlikely in the EU.
actually, the EU makes segregation movement more sensible. What would be the real disadvantage of Flanders being a direct Member State in the EU without the need to finance the Belgian Federal level? There would still be "border signs" indicating the crossing of the border into Wallonia, like into The Netherlands or Germany or France... Flemish would just save money and nothing else would change.
@@daszieher On the contrary. As a "new country" Flanders would lose all existing treaties and so also fall out of the EU. And the EU is not really waiting for countries to fall apart as we have seen for example with the Catalonian attempt.
Instead of saving money it would probably be a lot more costly than good reforms that make the country work better. But then you need a boring tradional party to be big enough and willing to do so. So the far right and the far left just make it worse.
@@daszieher There is the issue of what happens with Brussels. Does it go to Flanders (as it historically should), does it go to Wallonia (which would also make sense considering the bilingual status of Brussels is a myth, with french being the most common language by far).
Both parts of our country will not let that part go easily , as Brussels is a very economically active region and also of course the capital of Europe. Which also means the EU would prefer not to see us split because then it also becomes a major headache for them too.
I don't see a split happening anytime soon, even though I personally believe Flanders should be a country of it's own considering historically it doesn't really make that much sense to lump us together with Wallonia and I also believe it to be a remnant of times where we were heavily oppressed by France. But with the current political system , I don't think it's possible.
@@dante343ifyhistorically it doesnt really make sense to lump antwerp and vlaams brabant into flanders either. Historically only the regions of west-vlaanderen, oost-vlaanderen en nord-pas-de-calais were known as flanders. This flemish flag is a flag that does not represent the citizen in limburg and brabant... As much as we seem to larp it does.
you actually consider yourself Belgian? (not Flanders or some other, real nationality?) Why?
As a flemish person I can say this is pretty accurate despite being complicated.
I don't see Belgium splitting up in the close future. Not a lot of people really want it.
It's going to gain more and more support as economies are falling and migration kept up... Your culture is been destroyed and replaced with a woke one which will bring more chaos
@@user-ms9xw9br7s IF this would be happening you think the separation of Belgium would help this?😂And also voting on populist parties to have a better economy is not really ideal... research (real research not some youtubers/influencers) shows that populist parties (extreme right OR left) always show a declining economy by "protecting their economy".
And a culture is always changing, just like languages, i understand this could be scary for some people but this not always bad and was always happening.
Woke as such is not really bad i believe, its just used to put everything scary/bad (especially for conservative people), this causes to always overheat the debate between the left and right and conclusion of both is "ON YOUR SIDE EVERYTHING IS BAD!".
What I think we should be doing is just listen to both sides, what's the common ground, why do we want this change, why are you scared of it,....?
My 2 cents.
@@user-ms9xw9br7s according to research only a small minority is for Flemish independence
Belgium will stay for a really long period Belgium
At least for the coming years
Very unlikely but in a way
Never say never
@@user-ms9xw9br7s this independance talking has been going atound for more then 2 decades alteast. Its nzver going to happen.
The seperation would make Flanders alot whealtier, while basically forcing Walloons to finally get a job and stop leeching of the Flemish tax money.
It was surprisingly well explained!
I feel like nearly 18 million people to the north of Flanders are like: are you going to finsh that? 👀
Corsica doesn't have any elected pro-independence party - THEY DO have pro-autonomy parties.
And that's because unlike Scotland, Catalonia and Flanders, Corsica is ridiculously poor.
Nah man scotland is pretty poor, england carries the whole union economically
@@Helm11by that you mean London and the home counties. Most of the North is Quite Impoverished in Comparison
@Helm11 Scotland is actually comparatively wealthy. England outside of London/south east is one of the poorest parts of western Europe
@@Helm11Scotlands per capita and overall gdp are about the same as New Zealands. Per capita they’re slightly higher than France. So, not exactly a poor country.
@@Helm11 scotland is far from being poor, and it has the added advantage of not having shitholwa like London
Serious question here.
I notice almost all news channels refer to Right Wing groups as 'Far Right' or 'Hard Right' or 'Extreme Right'. Are there any 'Near Right' or 'Moderate Right' groups, or is 'Far Right' just an umbrella term for everyone who isn't Left or Centre?
There is a center right and a "regular" right in every countries, and the news outlets refer to them as such, what do you mean ?
(The German CDU is right and the FDP is center right, in France LR is right and Macron's party is center right, etc...)
@@louisg6296 Okay, I just never seem to hear about them. It’s always Far Right being mentioned in the news.
@@patricksheperd560 Those "regular" right wings party are even in power in some countries (the conservatives in the UK, Macron in France). I think the far right might be more talked about since their growth is recent and impressive. And they usually perform well in the EU elections, hence why they are often mentionned.
@@louisg6296
Dumb thing is, that nearly none of those,,far right " partys is far right. At least they aint, if we're stuck with the classic definiton of far right, meaning fascism, nazism and ultranationalism.
Christian and liberal (free market) parties are typically center right..
In Belgium, socialists are center left, the greens a bit further to the left and the Marxist party far left.
As Belgian, this is a well explained video. Well done.
Kaiserreich reference
Of course, the HOI4 players are interested in real-world politics
@@artemuaxdyou mean Millenium Dawn Modern Day Mod politics.
How about Burgundian System?
Welcome to a wonderful chicken farm :)
@@stellarisstrategy4488 least insane hoi4 ideology
Good video.
Very good summary of Belgian/Flemish politics from the perspective of an insider. Well done!
I work for a federal agency in Brussels, but was born and raised in Flanders. Grew up with everything that's culturally Flemish. At work, I work alongside Walloons every day. I hardly notice any cultural differences between us. I'd say it's only the language. I admit that my French is horrible, but that hardly prevents me from communicating or talking with my Walloon colleagues who try to meet in the middle and use some Dutch words they know. Or we just default to English if it gets difficult. So to hear older Flemish people, who also tend to vote Vlaams Belang, say that we should separate because Walloons are too different is plain annoying. Just go to a pub or frituur with a Walloon and you'll immediately see we're both Belgian.
I've noticed the same. I've hung out with walloons at conventions, we mostly spoke english but culturally and behaviorly we where more similar to eachother than to the french or dutch. If Belgium ends up splitting it would be more logical to make flanders a part of Germany than The Netherlands since we only have our language in common with the lather but our behavior is much closer to that of the former. I'd rather not see a split tho.
The only divide we have is a political, linguistic and economic divide. People who say that Flanders has to merge with the Netherlands also don't realise that there is a big culture difference. There is a reason that we aren't already merged into 1 nation as it used to be for a short time. Same could be said about France and Wallonia. The only region in France that has some cultural connection with Flanders is the French-Flanders region. But that is dying out too by time. Which comes out to my final conclusion, If the government could unite into 1 federal goverment there would be allot less trouble and divide created. The only thing that would divide us then is language and maybe economy.
@@jorgen8630 Your solution is to go back to the old model that a mjority of people grew to despise which is the very reason why they changed it? Always love hearing those solutions! (That's sarcasm by the way) Not to mention you assume that a split automatically means joining up with somebody else and that if Flanders was to join up with the Netherlands (which I am not saying it should) we wouldn't be able to grow towards each other?
Funny because I know plenty of cases where the Walloons and the Flemish working for the federal agencies in Brussels do not get along. Using your logic I am fairly certain I could go to the border regions and find a Flemish person and a Dutch person who will tell me we belong together because they're the best of friends.
@@TheShadowOfZama Getting along with someone doesn’t mean you can coexist with eachother. I personally have a hard time accepting the harshness of Dutch culture. We have little to nothing in common with eachother.
Monarchy, football, beer and chocholate are what keeping Belgium together.
Very good analysis of the split of Belgium, except for the omission of the key point: Brussels!
Could Flanders and Wallonia reach a deal on the assignation of Brussels? And the EU? Would the EU agree to have Brussels in Flanders?
Congratulations from your simple and clear explanation . I am Belgian and it it difficult sometimes to explain my country political situation
Very well done. I think you're the only UA-cam channel who did the topic right. No dramatizing no fear mongering, only objective and neutral truth. Unlike other youtube channels
The title in itself is dishonest, what are you on about 😂
@@HighFlyingOwlOfMinerva the title isn't but the thumbnail might be. I was talking about the video tho. Nowadays every youtube channel has some kind of clickbait.
@@neoderidder7734 Oh no, the title _certainly_ is dishonest. Using terms like "far right" isn't just overused - it's downright dishonest. Vlaams Belang is a *nationalist* party, not a "far right" party. By their logic, the PVDA is far left but they certainly didn't bother to name that.
But you're right about the thumbnail - you can't exactly secede from a nation that never existed in the first place. I'd say it's a reuniting with the Netherlands, if anything. Cheers.
@@HighFlyingOwlOfMinerva They are stated as extreme right on government and news sites like VRT its even on their wikipage. They probably didn't talk much about pvda because VB is the main focus of the video
Also I'd rather kms then join the dutchies and im sure the waloons think the same about france.
@@neoderidder7734
Wow. Some media are sluring partys they dont like as far right so it must be true. 🤡 You re really that gay?
Far right means fascism, ultranationalism and nazism. Nothing of it VB stands for.
Quick sidenotes: the coalition after the 2019 election was created hastely after Covid struck. It does not contain the 2 parties with the highest votes, instead all the other parties ganged up.
The fact that NVA is advocating conferalism is only pragmatic. We also want a complete split, but will settle for more authonomy.
The specter of Belgium breaking apart has been on the agenda since the seventies. It’s a bit like independence of Quebec, much talked about but never happens, because all parties have too much to lose…
EU never happened until it happened! Belgium breaking apart can happen and it was only before 1830 ,which is a tiny period in terms of history, when part of Belgium was part of the Kingdom of the Netherlands. As a Dutch person I am in favor of Flanders joining the Netherlands.
@@mradventurer8104 Except the Flemish don’t want, I guess you didn’t get the memo
@@mradventurer8104and the kicker is that the walloons would love to join France, except France in turn doesn’t know or care….
I use to think so too but then Brexit happened and that is a comparable situation.
I feel like we have this discussion every month or two.
Have you TLDR gave up on Twitter? I saw you guys have not posted anything since past year!
Finally a video about Belgium! 🇧🇪
More like a video about Flanders and Wallonia.
@@sebastianprimomija8375 And which country do they belong to?
Germany. @@soundscape26
7:01 why did you put MR in yellow and NVA in blue I'm so confused :D (also DéFI should be purple and CD&V orange)
N-VA is a member of the ECR, and MR is a member of the ALDE. The colours are the colours of their mother parties, which is more relevant for international audiences.
Why did you omit Open-VLD on the poll results?
Most Flemish don't want to split Belgium, they want to stop the flow of money to the French speaking part and want to change the flood of immigration.
I have to give it to Belgium: it is I think the only country in the world with two different about equally sized populations that has never seen a civil war, terrorist bombings or genocides.
this country seems to have infinite luck .
We have seen terrorist attacks. Remember the bombings on 22/03/2016 at Brussels Airport
Well, imagine, during clashes between French speakers and Flemish people in a small village in the 70s, a guy shot in the air!
@@tack7577 Ah yes but that was jihadistic terrorism. What I meant was violence between Flemish and Walloons...
@@Johnny-Thunderit doesn´t happen. We have our differences. But why hate people because of a different language?
Seriously. The world predicts our split since our independance but we are still here.
"fun" fact: The flags that these people are waving shown in the fragments are NOT the official Flemish flag. But an adaptation of a battle flag mainly used by World Word 2 collaborators and since adopted as the "Flemish movement flag". Minor, but politically import distinction.
As someone from Belgium who follows politics quite closely: excellent video. I would add that independence isn’t really the driving factor that pushes people to VB. I think if you would poll that party’s voters separately independence would not be a hot topic either.
Ps: the Flemish region government and Flemish speaking community government are fused into one government. That’s why we have 6 and not 7. They are also all on the same level of power.
Belgium mentioned!!1!!
I lived in Belgium for about three years. There is a stark difference between the Flanders and Wallonia. I could always tell when I crossed over from one to another just from the cleanliness of the streets. The streets in Flanders were usually much cleaner.
*"DOH!"*
- Homer Simpson
Ah yes, I have the same opinion as a tourist interested in Belgium 😬. A lot of underexplored potential in Wallonia though. Even in Charleroi 😉
Same here in Canada with the Ontario/Québec border and toilets, toilets in Québec are clean while the Ontario ones are disgusting. We have a similar independence movement here as well.
you have wildly different transport structures also
Now my question would be this: would it be possible for a Velvet Divorce-esque situation to happen, where while there isnt a ton of popular support for the split up of a country, the politicians who get elected feel very strongly about it and the people simply dont feel strongly enough about it either way to prevent it occuring?
Can you explain why Bulgaria is going back to the polls again for parliamentary elections?
I occasionally wonder if Vlaams Belang is to Vlaams Blok what Rassemblement National is to Front National - a sort of more 'acceptable' re-packaging. Please correct me, anyone, if that statement is mistaken.
Vlaams Blok was indeed just the old name of Vlaams Belang. VB's standpoint is more against illegal or otherwise legal mass migration, which makes it "far right" for some reason
@@Vlamyncksken Generally, any party which takes a stance against mass migration in an identitarian context - ie., that it is an existential threat to the indigenous population's very identity - is correctly Far Right. It's an unarguable fact.
@Letsthinkaboutit-mb7nn Ah classic anti-VB sentiment, that we are all nazi's yes? You don't agree with us, I don't care but do not try to brand us as nazi's.
@Letsthinkaboutit-mb7nn What in the hell are you talking about? Where'd you hear that bs? I'm Flemish and call horsecrap
@Letsthinkaboutit-mb7nn Ok, gaslighter
5:11 Cordon sanitaire doesn't apply to Sweden anymore. Following the 2018 elections, parties to the right started talks with the Sweden Democrats. First the Christian Democrats, then The Moderates, and finally The Liberals. Following the 2022 election, These centre-right to right parties formed a government with support of the Sweden Democrats in parliament. SD isn't in the government, but wields a lot of influence as the largest of the four parties.
cool, two speedbumps.
Considering that it takes so many months (over a a year in some cases) to form a government, perhaps they can live with a formal government?
Brussels bilingual? Last week when I visited it was just French 😂😂😂
I guess you avoided a lot of neighbourhoods, wisely.
It's French and Arabic!
How come Switzerland doesn't have these issues?
Switzerland is a confederation and there is not that much animosity between the different language groups. Due to historic reasons there is a lot of animosity between the language groups in Belgium.
As a Belgian (flemish) I'm very impressed at how well you understand the politics. better than most people I know.
As a tourist who really likes Belgium, I think the greatest issue starts with language barriers. Also, it's a night and day difference in terms of culture when going south.
Having said that, the greatest strenght of Belgium is this mix of pro-economy of Flanders, while keeping a great social safety net.
Flanders is a wonderful place. Thanks for the video
It's horrible. It's beautiful, but the people are just nightmare. A friend of mine from Congo who both worked and studied there has always been checked in trains (having paid tickets mind you), but she alone is asked. Also she gets weird looks all the time, even I feel uncomfortable with this. No, seriously flemish peeps are unhinged and not in a good way
Term far right have lost all meaning. Nowadays it can mean anything from I don't like you to neo nazis
good bruh.
What never made sense to me as a Belgian, is why, in the national elections, I can only vote for the parties of my region. How is it a national election when I don’t have all the national choices?
When I hear Flanders I just think of “Come out ye Black and Tans”…
They're the british of belgium
They completely destroyed the Brussels regional political institutions
In former Czechoslovakia it all started with a confederacy too...
Why are you showing a clip from Barcelona in a video about Belgium?
I recieved an ad for the vlaams belang at the start of this video.
"Well, not really, highly unlikely" as always lol.
I'm Belgian and I think that most people are just tired of the establishement and mass immigration. I mean you can see it's out of hand everywhere in the country with hundreds of agressions and knife attacks, which never happened at this scale before. If the Vlaams Belang was a "Belgisch Belang" it would instantly win in Wallonia too since there are merely no difference between the two parts of the country apart from the language.
And you think establishment will end once VB rules ? They've shown to be just more of the same.
Mass immigration is always the mantra people keep buzzing about. Negative news (aka: knife attacks etc) sells for news outlets and with an interconnected world it's more easily available to know what happens everywhere. This has nothing to do with "muh migrants bad all agressive" but all to do with Flemish people looking for a scapegoat (as always) like they did with the Walloons 15 years ago and the Italians when they came to work in the mines. We've failed to take responsibility ourselves and keep blaming the "failed state" on everyone but ourselves and refuse to bring up proper solutions which will work for generations to come. (and closing borders is a solution which doesn't work and has been proven time and time again)
All the right does it shout easy solutions to difficult problems to get everyone riled up.
Life, and politics especially, are more complicated (as seen by how many parties we have and how long formations took) than shouting some slogans and throwing random numbers around (ex: Wallonia gets X amount from every Flemish working class person) because there's more to those numbers than 1 or 2 sentences can explain.
It's actually disgusting that we as a society are so ill informed and vote people into power who have no real solutions to their problems. (look: Trump, Bolsanaro,...). I feel ashamed to see people I know and have as friends vote for bs because they refuse to read and learn anything at all and just listen to TikTok or news slogans. As something so profoundly important (the well-being of society on all possible levels) people remain so incredibly ignorant. Hasn't history taught people anything at all? And to say Belgium is (in a lot of ways) one of the best countries to live (standard of living) and a big portion of the nation wants to see this completely ruined/destroyed.
June will be black day in history and I hope people either learn from it or I won't be around by then to see what ignorance does to humanity and society.
In which universe does this happen?
There are as many crazy 'eigen volkers' as criminal migrants, and there are as much decent newcomers as there are decent old Belgians.
You just put them all at the same level to justify your latent racism.
People vote for Vlaams Belang Because of migration as a protest vote but Vlaams belang won’t rule because they said they would only rule too form a Flemish government and not a federal one
Oh shut up
Then why did not you bring all the Russian and belorussuan refugees?
That were running from war and failed revolution?
Guess what in countries that did invite them
Georgia Armenia Kazakhstan
They opened lots of businesses
And paying taxes
And benefiting the economy
And giving locals jobs
Why did you bring Syrians but not Russians?
And there no high crime rate in Georgia Armenia Kazakhstan Uzbekistan
Mainly places where Russian refugees go
The crime rate is not increase a bit
So that is your fault you EU hypocrites
As A belgian this has been happening for a while
Not mandatory voting, mandatory attendance at the polling station.
So, while citizens are required to show up at the polling station, they are free to choose whether or not to cast a valid vote, spoil their ballot, or submit a blank vote.
Also in advance it is stated that this is not enforced.
When i see "far right" in the media today, i immediately think they're moderate conservatives. So much hyperbole in todays news
So you deny the existence of true far-right movements? I can tell them apart from moderate conservatives.
@soundscape26 I did not say that. There are far right movements, just like there's far left. I said when I see something called far right, I judge it as normal conservatism until I see more information, due to the bias of modern media.
@@soundscape26maybe news organisations should hire you, as they sure fucking can't
@@soundscape26
Strawmen. Try better, fa¶¶ot. ^^
PLEASE! Stop calling everything opposed to the progressive left as "far-right." Calling everything "far-right" or "alt-right" has completely erroded the meaning.
One of the big reasons for Vlaams Belang 's growth that wasn't mentioned here is the fact that many people are fed up with the Vivaldi government, it has done more harm than good for the country. Vlaams Belang isn't in that government and is promising major changes if it gets into power. So naturally many people (especially the younger generations) are going to support them.
One could apply the same question regarding the the future of the United Kingdom as Nationalist parties lead the polls in two of the Devolved Nations ,the SNP in Scotland and Sinn Fein in Northern Ireland.
Simply putting ‘cordon sanitaire’ on screen with no additional articulation of its meaning doesn’t actually do anything to aid viewer understanding; in the future, put a little definition blurb underneath the word being referenced on-screen for the sake of enriched consideration of your analysis by the audience. Just my two cents.
It's French for (direct translation) "sanitary barrier" but was simply explained afterward as a pledge by other parties to NOT engage with anybody from that party.
I find this attitude problematic in a democracy, as if some electors and representatives were sick and contagious, but it is true that they are often demagogues who will instrumentalize any event to raise tensions and only point to the dumbest "solution" to "fix" a complex situation. 😢 People's appetite for simple solutions should be addressed head-on and chided as something only children and silly persons would look for: adults need to know that complicated systems require careful analysis and unbiased recommendations.
Looking at you, Brexit!
Our extreme right has watered down his policy. Just no more single men from muslim countries.
4:46 at this moment i got an add for raid shadow legends and was very confused
Thx for the video. Now i know we got elections on the 9th of june 🙏👍
As a Southern Dutch person (North-Brabant) I for one welcome our new Flemish overlords.
Excellent, as a Flemish person I'd say let's start on the paperwork for your ascension to the union.
@@quintiax Ik lik nog liever de kauwgom van de tafels van een middelbare school voor ik onderdeel ga worden van een dysfunctioneel sociaal construct met de naam "België".
België barst - De Nederlanden één!
@@quintiax Ik lik nog liever de banden van een bus voor ik vrijwillig in een sociaal construct met de naam "België" stap.
België barst - De Nederlanden één!
@@quintiaxCommon sense would tell the Vlemish to join The Kingdom of The Netherlands. But seeing how bad our Dutch politics has been post-WW2, I would gladly kiss the ring of my new Vlemish master.
@@Baddy187 Except this won't happen. Noord Brabant can join Flanders tho
No it won't. They have been saying this for 30 years and since then support for Flemish independence has only decreased.
flemish seperatism is so fucking low on their radar, they're a racist party first and foremost
do they even support Flemish Independace, I thought they supported the Greater Netherlands model
@@Haris1 That's even less popular. It's a very fringe idea and doesn't even get mentioned in mainstream politics.
@@Haris1 WTF dude. No one would ever want that. That has never been a popular idea.
@@holygooff I want it 🥲
Being from Belgium, I can confirm the accuracy of this story. Well done, TLDR! It is really not simple to get things right from a disturbingly complex country such as Belgium! (nevertheless, Belgium remains a stable country with a strong economy. You gotta do it!)
You did a great job explaining this mess! After 4 decades in this country I can tell you a lot will be said, yet nothing will change. *Side note: Brussels being bilingual in French and Arab.
Conclusie: we gaan weer een nieuwe mix hebben, met iets meer geel, en niks veranderd. Teveel politiekers in de regering net als vorige keer en de keer ervoor.
En onze belastingen gaan zeker niet omlaag. Maar tzonneke schijnt dus geniet ervan.
Niks als regen ja.
"far right" "far right" "far right" "far right"
They f*ck everything up
I live there, there is no such talk among me my friends or my family. Not even on the news that ive seen. Not sure why people think we are splitting lol
I visited flanders once it was like a cross between the twilight zone, fargo and the Truman show.
Totally freaked me out
Can you explain?
As a Belgian exceptionally well explained, one minor gripe is that the cordon sanitaire applies to both extreme rigt and left, hence VB and PVDA cant form coalitions with other parties.
PVDA and VB aint extreme.
@@boilinghippo4468 they are radical
@@ytwardep4702
We' re not talking about,, radical".
Biggest problem in our country are not the differences between the regions, but more the abundance of dimwitted politicians..😅
So what's the point of a multi party system if it just leads to a deadlock where a government isn't formed for a year and half and if a party can't form a collation their voters are screwed out of their votes
This is actually the most accurate explanation of Belgian politics, made by a non-Belgian, I have ever watched.
Hats off.
De ironie dat de meesten van ons die hier reageren Vlamingen zijn, maar allemaal in het Engels schrijven.
Inderdaad, maar ook wel logisch aangezien dat dit een Engels kanaal is, Vlaams Belang #1
@@IlanMuskbruh vlaams belang nummer 0
@@Captionthiss haha you're so triggered
🖤💛🖤💛@@Captionthiss
Grappig. Ik probeerde gister in het Nederlands te typen en al m'n berichten werden gecensureerd door UA-cam.
Geweldig systeem is er gecreëerd inmiddels als ik niet eens één bericht kan achterlaten. 🙃
The reason people vote for them is because it's the only party that even remotely represents the people, and even then it's a stretch, and more of a protest vote.
"remotely represents the people" they turn around and post in their discords that they want to murder me!!!
TBH as a Flemish native, your pronunciation of Vlaams Belang in the beginning of the video was actually not bad at all, good even.
that "belang" had a REALLY English pronunciation there.
Good video. Last December, I marked 40 years living in Belgium and working for the EU (EEC before 1992 for pedants😊). During all that time, both Belgium and the EU have allegedly been on the point of collapse. It has never happened and in my view never will.
The idea of Belgium collapsing has never been native to Belgium. It has always been external to the country. The idea of Flemish independence was introduced by the German occupier in WW1.
let me tell you something having maritime access is worth fighting for
Fighting requires effort, effort is like work, work is not what they like to do in Wallonia XD
@@sdb2885 😅
I tried but wow that's one confusing system they have their in Belgium
Belgian here: we don't want all these politicians but we can't get rid of them
I'm Belgian. Last week, a friend of mine was violently beaten by specific people It happens all the time, and not just in Belgium. That's the reason people vote far-right.
But that doesn't have to do with splitting Belgium in particular.
@@soundscape26 No, but it just so happens that the far-right party is also the separatist one. I believe more people want the security issue to be solved rather than to split the country
Most people who vote for vlaams belang dont care about flemish independence at all. Studies have proven this.
The cultural enrichment people?
The independence movement in Québec similarly is growing partly because of them and their deeds
Same goes for the United States, and I can’t blame anyone for it.
One note: we do not have mandatory voting, we do have mandatory "showing up at the polls" (opkomstplicht/compulsory attendance) but that doesn't have the same ring to it. You don't need to vote when you show up at the polls, but a vast majority do because well... you're already there. Some people might find it undemocratic, and I say: we have 90% voter turnout, so you can't argue with the results.
By that definition, no democracy has mandatory voting. Voting blank is always an option, the contrary would require checking your vote, which would easily lead to it not being a democracy.
@@leeroyjenkins0 Well... there's no mandatory voting. If you show up to the voting booth you've done your civil duty.
All countries should do the same in my opinion.
And from this year on even this compulsory attendence is abolished at the local council level at least in Flanders. No sure about Wallonia.
@@petero6471 In my opinion it's mostly done for political babysitting. OpenVLD was able to claim a 'victory' and it was a bone the N-VA was willing to give them to keep them in line. I do worry about the consequences, as we have no tradition of convincing people to go to the polls, nor the required infrastructure to organise such activities. Let's hope that people do their duty and that we don't see
I was in the North and South of Belgium about 10 years ago , when the country was run by a temp (2yrs+) government, which just followed the letter of the law for every major decision. Everyone agreed that was the only time the country functioned properly, without the Flemish/French divide. Just look again what your constitution says.
Correction: it wasn't working properly in those days either, it was just less dysfunctional than usual which of course looks incredibly good in comparison. Same way a 4/10 looks good when everyone else gets a 1/10.
I live in Belgium and I DO NOT WANT Belgium to slipt !!!
Imagine having to speak fre*ch 🤮🤮🤮
Free Flanders, proud Germanic race!