Cheap comedy from the Flemish nationalists

The Flemish-nationalist N-VA party is up in arms because Belgium's caretaker government wants to present a plan for economic recovery at the behest of the EU. The N-VA demands the right to have its say, but according to the daily De Morgen the commotion is just a farce: "What the party really wants is to be excluded [from the coalition talks] by the other parties so that it can revert to its preferred role of innocent little lamb and present itself as the blameless candidate in the local elections. Because the N-VA has long since given up any notion of forming part of a coalition. … All the other parties involved in the talks are performing the same show just as badly. … They too are professing their love for the N-VA while secretly hoping it throws in the towel. As long as it refuses to do so, the circus goes on. With the N-VA, without it, or new elections - we don't care. But someone must finally put an end to this debilitating exercise in senseless irresponsibility."

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