Belgium 'an accident of history with football and beer' [View All]

[T_i_B]

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2006/08/19/wbelg19.xml

The political leader of Flanders, the Dutch-speaking half of Belgium, has caused outrage by saying that the 175-year-old Belgian nation was an "accident of history" with "no intrinsic value".

Years of devolution had eroded the kingdom to the point where it now amounted to nothing more than the "king, the national football team and certain brands of beer", said Yves Leterme, the Flemish region's premier.

Adding personal insult to political injury, he accused French speakers living in Flanders of "lacking the mental capacity to learn Dutch". He scorned the official notion that Belgium was a bilingual nation, saying: "Look at the difficulties Francophone leaders, and even the king of this country, have in speaking fluent Dutch."

Mr Leterme's hard-line stance reflects the growing sense among voters in Flanders, the richer and larger half of Belgium, that they subsidise ungrateful French compatriots in the south and the time to sever the last remaining ties may be near.