Split or not to split? That is the question! by Barbora Misakova

Where is no will, there is no compromise. Belgium is divided across linguistic fault lines, where French spoken are in the south and Dutch in the north. Negotiations between Francophone and the Flemish part of Belgium went awry, what ended up in resignation of socialist francophone leader Elio Di Rupo on Friday. Belgium has been in a political limbo ever since inconclusive June elections and future prognosis are optimistic neither. Francophone politicians started to openly discuss the prospect of dividing the country in two. As senior Socialist leader Laurette Onkelinx warned: “We must start preparing for the end of Belgium.” Frederic Simon, France24’s cor! respondent, who is in the Brussels now, says: “The country has never been that close to splitting up.” In spite of that, King Albert II is moving quickly to get coalition talks back on track. After Di Rupo’s resignation, he did not hesitate and appointed a pair of new negotiators in the hope of finally reaching a consensus to form a government. Sometimes it even seems like the king Albert was the only person who realizes how much this dispute touches on so many sensitive Belgian issues across multiple levels such as wealth distribution, culture or issue of language. But the words of Miss Onkelinx for La Deniere Heure newspaper, tell their own tale: “Let’s hope it doesn’t come to that because if we split, it will be the weakest who will pay the heaviest price. On the other hand, we can no longer ignore that among a large part of the Flemish population, it is their wish.”

related story (sgx18180): http ://www.france24.com/en/20100907-the-belgian-break-up...

by Barbora Misakova for Cantell TV (http://cantell.tv)

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