Discord: Belgium

This map also highlights how complicated these situations are.

Belgium is taking far longer than is common, in the modern age, to choose a new government. The split is between the Dutch and Flemish(Germanic) and French and Walloon(Romantic).

Language is written into the Constitution of Belgium, which specifies that, of the top fifteen or so Ministers, they must be split between French and Dutch speaking peoples (Article 99).

Language differences are not new to Belgian history. Language riots in 19681 resulted in the split of a major university into two parts, separated by language.

Belgium itself, although separate from the Netherlands for much of the last 400 years, came into its present form after the 1815 Congress of Vienna created the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. After 15 years, modern Belgium broke away from its Dutch King, principally along the linguistic border (with Francophone Belgium receiving assistance from France).

In 1979 the government of Belgium experienced its last difficulties comparable to those in 2007-2008 2 . At that time the issue was "a dispute with members of his coalition on restructuring Belgium into a federal state that could allow separate assemblies for its different linguistic regions"3