The past weeks in Belgium

• The liberal VLD starts to resemble more and more a stalinist party. Dissenting opinions are not tolerated anymore. Senator Coveliers is likely to be thrown out of the party on Tuesday. Right-wing opinions and criticizing the government cannot be done in public anymore. Traditional liberal voters can choose between putting up with it or voting Vlaams Belang.


• The liberal VLD and the socialist SP.a 'betrayed' the Flemish front about the division of the Brussels-Halle-Vilvoorde electoral district. They'd rather save the federal government instead of the Flemish government and gave in to Francophone intimidation. Flemish prime minister Yves Leterme (CD&V) can choose: put up with it or make collapsing his own cabinet. The N-VA on the other hand will have no choice of leaving the Flemish government in March if the division has been arranged by then. Their voters would never forgive them for clinging on to Geert Bourgeois' portfolio. To be continued...


• Crown prince Philippe managed to cause another disturbance by intervening in political questions once again. This time he signed a document of the Belgian and Greek employers' organizations urging the Belgian government to take action in implementing the results of the Lisbon summit on liberalizing the economy. This time, especially the Francophone and Socialist parties were pissed off. Prime minister Verhofstadt was forced to warn Philippe this was the last time he could have an opinion without consequence. The Flemish majority parties in the federal government, supplemented with N-VA and Vlaams Belang, want to reduce the monarchy to a Scandinavian-style ceremonial office. Besides, more and more people start questioning Philippe's abilities of being the future King of the Belgians. Or is the problem only that he has bad advisors? Anyway, the republicans managed to collect some more arguments the last few months...


• On the New Year's reception of the SP.a, party leader Steve Stevaert announced in real Fidel Castro-style that he wants the social security being firmly-anchored in the constitution, because "comrades, we will not always be in power". The Socialists act like all other parties would abolish the social security at once in a government without the SP.a. Ridiculous, ofcourse. Besides, if you could find a 2/3 majority now for writing it into the constitution, why would the other parties try to abolish it? Furthermore, if the Socialists would finally start dealing with the abuses in the social security, there'd be enough money to give to the people that really need it in the next decades. But the Socialists, esp. the PS, thrive on the parasitism in some sectors.


• This weekend, I read Derk-Jan Eppink's book Avonturen van een Nederbelg. Eppink is a Dutch political editor who lived in Belgium for some years and worked for NRC Handelsblad and De Standaard. He gives a very good and objective, although not flattering description of the Belgian political ethics. While he was an editor for De Standaard, he clashed with Verhofstadt repeatedly. Verhofdstadt could not tolerate criticism and tried to intimidate the editor in chief every time Eppink wrote through the PM's lies. The book is also available in English (Belgian adventures). For everyone who wants to understand Belgian politics, reading this book is a must!