The Flemish are flexing their muscles

"On the strike of 2.30 p.m. last November 7th, a certain idea of Belgium passed away", writes Béatrice Delvaux, editor-in-Chief of the daily, after the Flemish majority voted in favour of the division of the Brussels-Hal-Vilvorde constituency. "This is the end of the country where compromise was built into an institution - attracting the admiration and interests of the whole wide world - and where the collective interests of a country surpassed the individual interests of a community. ... The tremor runs extremely deep in two ways: first, psychologically. The Flemish have transgressed a taboo and may now develop a taste for this unilateral exercise of their power. As for the French-speakers, they have suffered a humiliation and will hitherto exist as victims of the broken Belgian pact. Secondly, on the political front, the vote on Wednesday is no epiphenomenon or the result of special circumstances. It is the consequence of deep antagonism now openly declared between the Flemish and the French-speakers."

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