First confederalism, then independence, that’s the main manifesto plank of the Flemish nationalists who look set to become the biggest party in Flanders at the general election on Sunday.
Last Sunday some 1,500 militants from the “nationalist and democratic” New Flemish Alliance (N-VA) held their last pre-election meeting in the velour seats of a theater in central Ghent, the capital of East Flanders in Belgium’s Dutch-speaking northern region.
Just days ahead of the elections they were in buoyant mood. The latest polls see their group coming out on top in Flanders with 26 percent of the popular vote.
Such a level of support for a party that openly advocates splitting from the poorer, French-speaking region of Wallonia to the south would be unprecedented.
In the theater, yellow flags sporting a rampant black lion — the flag of Flanders — were hoisted next to the EU flag.
The black, yellow and red stripes of the Belgian flag were notable by their absence.
“We haven’t won yet, the Belgian establishment won’t give us any presents,” said Siegfried Bracke, a leading Flemish journalist who recently joined the N-VA ranks.
“We will hold a hand out to the francophones for a confederation project, but it is written in the stars that Flanders will be an independent state in Europe,” he added.
There are no political parties operating nationally in Belgium, guaranteeing that a coalition government will replace the outgoing coalition following the general election.
The country is split along its linguistic faultline, with only the Brussels capital region officially bi-lingual.
The francophone parties were incensed by De Wever’s splittist rhetoric.
Head of the francophone centrists, Joelle Milquet, said the N-VA must be opposed to avoid the split up of Belgium and the “annexation of Brussels to Flanders.”
Francophone liberal chief Didier Reynders charged that De Wever was “mistaking his dreams for reality.”
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