Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results

Belgium, Politics 1 Minute

In Belgium, rumour has it that the latest pair of royal informants to take on the role of forming a federal government is looking to make a coalition proposal which could consist of the Francophone socialists and the Flemish nationalists.

The elections were held in May of last year and there have been several (failed, obviously) attempts to assemble a government.

The problem here is that Belgium has no national parties — the Flemish parties campaign in Flanders and the Francophone parties campaign in Wallonia. Because of this, national elections look more like a pair of regional elections that happen to be held at the same time. This is compounded by the fact that Wallonia tends to vote left and Flanders tends to vote right, and exacerbated by the fact that none of the Francophone parties trust the separatists of the N-VA, who are the largest party in Flanders by some distance.

We’ve been here before. I’m far from convinced that things will be any different this time around.

Published by Paul

Reader of books, watcher of films, player of games. British father of three, now living in Belgium and making a living from building interfaces.

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2 thoughts on “Insanity is doing the same thing and expecting different results”

    1. I imagine that splitting the country would cause more problems than it solves, especially when you take into account the extent to which Belgium is already decentralised and the lack of a Federal government doesn’t make as much difference as it would for other countries.

      My guess is that we will end up with a coalition that excludes either the N-VA or the PS, but I wouldn’t be surprised if the negotiators throw in the towel and we end up having another election before the end of the year.

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