Why a Far-Right Separatist Party is on the Rise in Belgium

Europe has many secessionist movements - and the same is true of Belgium, where a separatist party is on the rise. In this video, we take a look at whether Flemish people really want independence, explain the party's growth and what it means for Belgium going forward.

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00:00 - Introduction
00:55 - Belgian Political System
02:16 - Flemish Nationalism & Vlaams Belang
03:39 - Does Flanders Really Want Independence?
04:46 - What Does it Mean Going Forward?
07:33 - Sponsored Content

[gubruikertje]

Fun fact: the (tiny) German speaking community elect their own seat in the EU. This technically means the people living there are the most influential in Europe

[Corbalte]

Babe wake up, new video about "OMG BELGIUM IS BREAKING UP ???" dropped (since 1830)

[HernasRoom]

Belgium is like a country with high functioning anxiety. You see the stress, you see the self-doubt, and yet it still keeps going...

[Twinkiepower]

My favorite part about this video is all the Belgians in the comments saying “haha yeah it’s a mess but it’s home”

[tedlee]

perfect depiction of duolingo saying ‘dutch or the crutch’ 😂

[lauradekeyzer]

I would like to congratulate TLDR News for the best explanation of how our country works to other people. Most Belgians aren't even capable to explain this so clear!

[MartijnterHaar]

When it comes to Flemish independence there's always the Brussels problem to take into account on why this will never happen. As you can see on the map, Brussels lies in Flanders and is even its historical and current capital. So the Flemish nationalists will never give up on Brussels. But the reality also is that for a variety of reasons Brussels has become ever more French speaking over the decades, with currently only a tiny minority of inhabitants having Dutch as their first language. So the nationalists have no chance of convincing the people of Brussels to come along with them democratically.

[geeboom]

If Bruxelles is bilingual it is because the population speaks Arabic and French.

[cgt]

1:55 duolingo in its least agressive state

[joelbenford]

Probably not. For every thousand "will country X split apart" videos on yoube...

[BlackbriarRose-eiph]

Belgian here :) two small mistakes: the N-VA does want flemish independence. They currently focus on confederalism, because they realize that most flemish do not want flemish independence. Also, at 7:00 the names N-VA and MR/OVLD have been mixed up in the graph. For the rest: great video!

[bbenjoe]

Monarchy, football, beer and chocholate are what keeping Belgium together.

[liamtahaney]

I think its a pretty accurate report on the state of belgian politics. I get the impression of 1/3-1/2 of VB voters you talk to are motovated as an anti establishment vote more than anything else. If you look at polling a Vivaldi 2 is mathematically possible. Question is more if the parties will agree on who does what

[artosy]

To make things more complicated is the motto of belgium.

[kiritomato]

Its the right of man to want not being part of any french speaking country. I think Thomas Paine once said that.

[Bitterswoon]

As a Fleming I've watched several of these videos, and I have to say yours is remarkably accurate across the board, especially for a foreigner. Congratulations.

I personally would have no issues with independence, but I have no problem admitting that most of the population doesn't want this. In fact, the main effect of the rise of Vlaams Belang has to been to discredit Flemish nationalism in the eyes of the center and left, so it's probably had a negative impact, if anything.

[oddtherapy]

The NVA has pushed for independence as well, they’ve long argued that independence is inevitable but that in the meantime confederalism is the most viable option. Make no mistake, they want the same as the VB. It used to be openly stated on their website, probably still is.

[answerman]

I lived in Belgium for about three years. There is a stark difference between the Flanders and Wallonia. I could always tell when I crossed over from one to another just from the cleanliness of the streets. The streets in Flanders were usually much cleaner.

[Eledore]

Thank you for the overall summery.
While i know the individual parties, it is always a pain to figure out how they all do in the overall picture.
This might have saved me over 40 hours of foreigner (me) asking questions about the current state of political turmoil.

[patricksheperd]

Serious question here.

I notice almost all news channels refer to Right Wing groups as 'Far Right' or 'Hard Right' or 'Extreme Right'. Are there any 'Near Right' or 'Moderate Right' groups, or is 'Far Right' just an umbrella term for everyone who isn't Left or Centre?