Belgium Divided
09’ 30”
Walloon procession | Music | 00:00 |
| EPSTEIN: Welcome to a country in political crisis, in some countries that means bombs and bullets, but not in Belgium. | 00:11 |
| Europe’s super powers have battled in this country for centuries, so Belgians have no taste for that. | 00:25 |
| This is the town of Stavelot, home to French-speaking Walloons. | 00:36 |
Johanna fits penguin costume to Julianne | Julianne Thomas, her mother Johanna and her father Jarno are part of something their town has been doing for more than a thousand years. | 00:48 |
Walloon procession | Music | 00:03 |
Johanna and Julianne in procession | EPSTEIN: Back in the 7th century, the town’s monks were banned from taking part in this festival, so they disguised themselves in costumes like these and delighted in mocking the local nobility. The weapons though are not for the squeamish – they’re inflated pigs bladders. | 01:10 |
Man at festival | MAN AT FESTIVAL: Those who really want independence are not the real Flemish people and I don’t think they really understand what Belgium is all about. People talk about the few who want to break up this country, but not the millions who want a united Belgium. | 01:33 |
Procession | Music | 01:52 |
| EPSTEIN: The parade can’t hide the fact that this is one of Western Europe’s poorest regions. Unemployment here is double what it is in the Flemish North, and the public sector here soaks up twice as much of the federal budget. This region now needs a nation more than ever. | 01:56 |
Epstein stands in road as parade passes and he gets hit | This is the rich cultural history of a people who for a long time ran this country, even though they’re now far far more likely to be poor and unemployed, they still know how to have a really good time -- and for some reason they love hitting people on the head with a pig’s bladder. And I can’t even see what I’m doing! | 02:17 |
Parade in snow | Music | 02:38 |
Sint Niklaas |
| 02:42 |
| EPSTEIN: So much for the French speaking half of the country. Now let’s venture into the Flemish North. That’s the Dutch speaking region which some would like to be the independent nation of Flanders. | 02:53 |
Sint Niklaas beer hall | In the town of Sint Niklaas, they know how to enjoy themselves. As the nation’s politicians try to find a power sharing formula, they’ll have to factor in the views of people like Peter Busyrogge of the Flemish Separatist Party the NVA. | 03:10 |
Busyrogge | PETER BUSYROGGE: Wallonia and Flanders are two totally different countries. They are two parts of a state, but they are completely different countries with two different cultures. | 03:27 |
| EPSTEIN: Do you see any point to Belgium itself, I mean do you have a Belgium identity? PETER BUSYROGGE: Personally, myself no. | 03:39 |
Sint Niklaas beer hall | EPSTEIN: For centuries, the Flemish were ruled by the Spaniards, the French, the Austrians and the Dutch. It’s only in the last few decades that they feel they’ve broken free of the Walloons. | 03:50 |
Epstein and Busyrogge in beer hall | Peter is the acceptable political face of the push for independence but sometimes the front can slip. | 04:06 |
Busyrogge | So you don’t have any friends who are French speakers? PETER BUSYROGGE: Not a lot, not but… I mentioned… like I said, we don’t watch their TV, they don’t watch ours. We already live like two separate countries. In the minds of the people we’ve already split. | 04:13 |
Belgian ‘icons’ | Music | 04:39 |
| EPSTEIN: Belgium just doesn’t have the institutions that most nations do. There’s no national newspaper, no national political parties. There aren’t even national charities, universities -- and there’s no national census. | 04:51 |
Hoeilaart shots | It’s in the border area between Flanders and Wallonia that you can find some of the greatest concerns about the possibility of Belgium splitting apart. Take the case of the town Hoeilaart. It has a significant French speaking community in a wedge of Flemish territory. MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: All the French- | 05:08 |
Epstein and Gillard in car | speaking people who have problems they phone me, it’s true. | 05:27 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> | EPSTEIN: For fifteen years, Marie Claire Gillard has been a local politician here. She’s unusual because she’s nominally Flemish, but she speaks French not Dutch in her home. | 05:30 |
Epstein driving | EPSTEIN: Oh, this is the border. MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: Yes. EPSTEIN: Under the bridge. MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: And on the other side is La Hulpe. EPSTEIN: So we’re on the Flemish side, the other side’s French? MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: Yes. | 05:44 |
Restaurant | EPSTEIN: She points out a restaurant forced out of business because they were French, | 05:53 |
Epstein driving with Gillard | a school that refuses to accept French speaking children | 06:00 |
Tennis club | and a tennis club that demands all its coaches speak only Flemish. What she fears are local laws that stop French speakers from buying houses. | 06:04 |
Gillard. Super: | MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: If first before you come you say ‘yes, if you don’t know Flemish you can’t come here’, I find this a little racist. EPSTEIN: So you think it is driven by racism? MARIE CLAIRE GILLARD: Some people, not all of them and perhaps it’s 5% who are racist and the rest is following because they don’t dare say the contrary and that’s not good. | 06:16 |
Brussels | Music | 06:41 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> Epstein with Valkeniers | EPSTEIN: In the heart of the capital Brussels, which is multi-cultural and international, you find what many consider to be political poison. Vlaams Belang Flemish Nationalists may be on the far right, but a whopping 20% of the nation last year voted for views like this, expressed by Party Chairman, Bruno Valkeniers. | 06:49 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> | BRUNO VALKENIERS: Belgium is indeed in my opinion, it’s an occupier because basically it was created to dominate, to let the French culture dominate the Dutch culture so in my opinion it’s an occupier. EPSTEIN: Deemed racist | 07:13 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> | by the courts, and excluded from the Federal negotiations, their stance is electoral honey, | 07:29 |
People on street. Brussels | a tough line on immigrants and complete disdain for Belgium. BRUNO VALKENIERS: There is no common | 07:36 |
Valkeniers. Super: | vision anymore, there’s no common values, no common virtues any more in Belgium. | 0742 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> | EPSTEIN: Does that mean there’s now no longer any meaning in being Belgian? BRUNO VALKENIERS: For us there never was, and for more and more people today, there isn’t indeed. That is correct. | 07:47 |
EU Building | EPSTEIN: Such thinking is the antithesis of the spirit embodied in the European Union, but it’s the EU that has made the prospect of independence more viable, with a common currency and a bank amongst other things. Against that, it’s Brussels the internationalised, officially bi-lingual city that makes splitting the country that much more difficult. | 08:03 |
Dutilleul | PHILIPPE DUTILLEUL: Belgium is a laboratory of what Europe will be tomorrow. Will it be a political Europe or will it be simply a free trade zone? Will it be able to have some political weight? Will it be a Europe of regions, a Europe of nations, or a federal Europe? I think Europe’s going to become what Belgium will be tomorrow. | 08:28 |
Atomium | Music | 08:49 |
<!--[if !supportEmptyParas]--> <!--[endif]--> | EPSTEIN: The Atomium, a one hundred metre high version of an ion atom, was built in the 1950s when unity never seemed in doubt. In the end there will be political compromise here, with even more power taken away from the Federal government and given to the regions. No one knows if that will split the atom of national unity. | 08:56 |
Credits: | Reporter: Rafael Epstein Camera: Sam Ingram Producer: Justine Kerr Editor: Mark Douglas Production Company: ABC Australia | 09:30 |