CERCLE DIPLOMATIQUE - issue 02/2017

LE MONDE BELGIUM
One of the famous chocolate
shops (right) and a modern
installation in the center, both in
Brussels (below).
BRUSSELS. The heart of the European Union, the place of unity in Belgium.
The gothic Town Hall, located
on the famous Grand Place,
right in the center, is the major
meeting point of the city of
Brussels.
PHOTOS: VISITFLANDERS.COM, SMETS PREMIUM STORE, MILO PROFI, JEAN-PAUL REMY
There is a world record held by the Kingdom of
Belgium, but for most of the Belgians this is
not their favourite smalltalk topic. Its story
goes back to the second last Parliamentary elections
in Belgium, on June 13th, 2010. During the legislative
period before, the country already had seen nearly
four years of political crisis. One government after
the other had offered its resignation to the then King
Albert, some only after a few months in office.
But the elections of 2010 – in which the nationalist
New Flemish Alliance became the largest party in
Flanders, and the Socialist Party PS the largest in
Wallonia – resulted in total gridlock. All negotiations
for a new government lead to no results. Not a
single consensus could be achieved, and the country
was run by a caretaker government until December
2011, when a new government was sworn in. Already
by March 30th, 2011, this set a new world record
for the elapsed time without an official government,
previously held by war-torn Iraq.
”Well“, says Willem Van de Voorde, Ambassador
of the Kingdom of Belgium to Austria in an eye-opening
interview with “Cercle Diplomatique“, ”we have
a tradition of long government formations and that
was probably a record.“
Visitors travelling the country in the months before
the 2010 elections, must have experienced
two Belgiums. The one Belgium, beloved by millions
of tourists who enjoy driving from prosperous village
to prosperous village, where the houses are solid without
being grand, tidy but somehow higgledy-piggledy,
ordinary, with a touch of the surreal. ”The people
on the streets are neither aggressively neat, like the
Dutch, nor self-consciously elegant, like the French“,
a report of the British ”Guardian” reads. ”They are something
in between. They are triumphantly and typically
Belgian.“
The other Belgium showed a picture of a divided
nation. In the French-speaking villages, every second
house had a red, yellow and black tricolour flag,
draped at a window or flying from its roof. And the
householders were making a self-conscious political
statement: ”We are Belgians and we want to remain
Belgians.“ But as soon as one entered an officially
Dutch-speaking village, the Belgian tricolours almost
vanished and no such proclamation was to be heard.
All road signs there are in Dutch (or in English), what
was an “Avenue“ in the last village, becomes a “laan“
in the next, “rue“ becomes “straat“, and a “deviation“
A fisheye‘s view on the European
Parliament building in Brussels
(above). The St. Michael and
Gudula Cathedral (right) is named
after the patron saints of
Belgium.
Building complex at the National
Corporation KazMunaiGas
Round Square.
32
Cercle Diplomatique 2/2017
Cercle Diplomatique 2/2017
31