Belgium's unity at stake in general elections

Via France24

AFP - Belgians vote in a general election Sunday with opinion polls predicting the kind of impressive showing for Flemish nationalists which would send fears of a national break up soaring.

Pre-election opinion polls put the independentist NVA party in front in the the richer northern region Dutch-speaking Flanders, with a quarter of the vote.

Add fellow separatist groups and the vote regionally stacks up at 40 percent, the kind of figure to send shivers down the spines of federalist politicians in the poorer French-speaking region of Wallonia to the south.

The two communities could then have more than the usual problems in forming a coalition government in a country where only the Brussels capital region is officially bilingual.

It took months after the last legislative elections in 2007 for a government to emerge. Analysts fear any duplication could lead to further radicalisation and bring the spectre of an eventual split into stark focus....(Remainder.)

Run for Cover!

In Antwerp, one must be prepared to run for cover from the downpour.

Flemish Separatists in the Spotlight

Via Flandersnews.be

With less than a week to go before the General Election international interest is growing in the platform of the Flemish nationalist party N-VA. The party sees Flemish independence as its ultimate goal and a Belgian confederation as a staging post towards this objective.

On Tuesday the party attracted considerable attention at a specially organised 'international' news conference.

A party spokesman told the daily De Standaard that this was the only way to deal with all the queries it was receiving from international journalists based in Brussels.

At the news conference the party explained its key policies in French, English, German, Spanish and Italian. N-VA leader Bart De Wever also set out his party's view on Flanders, Belgium and Europe.

On Monday alone the party was contacted by the Montreal Daily, the Estonian Public Broadcaster and Germany's Frankfurter Allgemeine.

The daily De Morgen writes that international interest is linked to several factors. There's tumbling confidence among foreign investors that has dented the value of Belgian state bonds in recent days. This is making it increasingly expensive for the Belgian State to borrow money on the international markets.

Investors are following the political developments in Belgium with baited breath. Fears about a new period of political instability after the election have triggered concerns about a delay in tackling economic problems including the state debt. International investors and the international press are all worried....(Remainder)