The three Belgiums

Belgium is celebrating the Belgian National Day, but there's little sign of a spirit of national unity, writes correspondent Rene Vautravers. "The monarch has taken this day as an opportunity to stress his desire for the unity of the country. It's no secret that the spread of Flemish separatism worries him… The Belgian royal family is without doubt one of the country's few truly national institutions. The king's predecessor, his dead brother Baudouin, was no friend of federalism either. He complained about the speed with which powers were passing from the centralised state to the constituent states. He feared this would weaken the power of the centralised state. Now the centralised state is almost a thing of the past. Flanders, Wallonia and bilingual Brussels now form three relatively independent constituent states, each with their own language community. Even the German-speaking minority has its own parliament."

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