Belgian PMs against referendum on division

On Monday, September 10th, most Flemish Members of Parliament rejected the initiative of the extreme right-wing party Vlaams Belang, which would have liked to see a vote in favour of a referendum on the division of Belgium. "Did we really believe in an affirmative vote? No. But if there is just one salutary element of the abhorrent spectacle of a Vlaams Belang marginalised for months that treated itself yesterday to a media-hyped comeback, it is that it forced the Flemish parties to extract themselves from the thick, ambiguous fog that they had deliberately maintained around Belgium's final destination," comments Bétarice Delvaux, chief editor of the French-speaking daily. "Nothing, of course, has been resolved. Because nothing guarantees that the separation will never happen. And a compromise remains to be constructed between absolutely opposite conceptions of the role of the Belgian State. But symbolically, yesterday, a gesture was made. To recognise this is the least that can be done."

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