Rival Dutch- and French-speaking communities in Belgium are at each other’s throats again — this time over the loan of two giant pandas by China to the linguistically divided nation.
“Pandas, a question of national interest,” said La Libre Belgique as the country worried over the long-negotiated and now contentious deal.
The problem is that the rare bears, a reliable draw for visitors, are to be housed in a zoo in French-speaking southern Wallonia, not far from the city of Mons, whose last mayor is none other than Prime Minister Elio Di Rupo.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
Belgium’s oldest and most well-known zoo, the Antwerp Zoo, set up in 1843, located in the heart of the port city of Antwerp in northern Flanders, is indignant to have lost out to the Pairi Daiza animal park set up a couple of decades ago.
(AFP)
彼此敵對的比利時荷蘭語區與法語區又槓上了——這回是為了比利時這個語系分裂的國家向中國租借的兩隻大貓熊。
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
「貓熊，是攸關國家利益的問題。」就在比利時全國對此協商已久、如今又起爭議的貓熊租借協議感到憂心之際，法文報《自由比利時報》如是說。
問題關鍵在於，肯定能吸引遊客蒞臨的罕見貓熊，將進駐南部瓦隆法語區的一家動物園，該園與上任市長正是當今比利時總理艾利奧‧迪賀波的芒斯市相距不遠。
而比利時歷史最悠久、最名聞遐邇的動物園，也就是成立於一八四三年、坐落於北部佛拉芒荷語區港都安特衛普市中心的安特衛普動物園，對於（在爭取貓熊進駐上）輸給前述二十年前成立的帕利狄薩動物園，大為憤慨。
（法新社／翻譯：張沛元）
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