Wednesday, March 30, 2011

We Are the Champions


Yes, at having the worst politicians who cannot get along with each other, though I have also been reminded the people voted them into their job and keep doing the same. However, we have, yesterday I think, broken the record of Iraq and have now gone longer than any other country witout a government. Nothing to laugh about but you might as well ridicule the situation. There are more efforts, by students, to urge for national reconciliation and bringing together the language communities. Also, there have been new polls that show Elio Di Rupo (a rather ridiculous figure in my opinion) is losing some of his popular support. The socialists still have by far the largest support of the Francophone parties but it has been dropping, partly because, it is assumed, of his failure to reach a compromise with Flemish nationalist Bart de Wever. For my opinion, I would blame Bart for that, he is the far more radical in his extreme position and unwilling to compromise. However, I think it would be good also for Di Rupo to lose more support because I cannot divorce the fact of long-time socialist control in Wallonie from the fact that it is so much poorer than Flanders and has to depend on help from the wealthier neighbors to continue. That is as much to blame for the national hard feelings as the extreme nationalism of some in Flanders community.


The polls say that both the PS and the CDH would fall below their prior results if elections were held again. The MR liberals would remain in second place but climb from 22.2% to 24.4% but perhaps most surprising was the increase in support for the far-right (I would say nationalist but that is Belgian nationalist not Walon nationalist) National Front which made a jump from 1.5% support to 6%. Still very small as always but I was surprised by such a sudden and large increase for so minor a party. That may alarm people but, at least, they want to keep the country together. What I would like to see is not much change in policy for Flanders just a change toward greater national unity. In Wallonie I would like to see national support continue but many policy changes. If Flanders seems to have all the wealth, perhaps the smart thing to do would be to follow the policies economic of Flanders in Wallonie instead of holding resentment. That is just my opinion, loving both regions as I do.

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