Not my flag!

The Christian Democrats won the federal elections on Sunday in my native country Belgium. The Flemish Christian Democrats called CD&V. Together with the nationalistic party NVA.
Their leading man and probably our next prime minister is called Yves Leterme. He currently is the minister-president of Flanders, the Dutch speaking part of Belgium. Belgium is torn apart by ethnic and linguistic problems. In short: the rich northern Flemish speaking part wants to get rid of the poor southern French speaking part of the country. It's as simple as that.

Yves Leterme is shown here on his party headquarters on the day of the elections. Waving in the background are Flemish flags. Separatistic Flemish flags used by "flamingants", nationalists. You can recognize them by the black tongue of the lion. The official flag has a yellow-black lay out with a red tongue, as yellow - black and red are the colours of the Belgian flag.

Not only was this pure provocation it 's also a sign of disrespect. Not only towards our country but a direct attack to anyone who actually has a positive view on our country's future. It disgusts me that this "media-druling", "lusting for power", egocentric individual wants to grab control and is actually convincing people to believe in him and his ideas.

This country only has a short history; it was founded in 1830. We never had it easy, being a small country stuck in the middle of Germany, France, Holland and overseas the UK. But we always stood our ground. In WWII the Germans ruled our nation and bought the sympathy of the Flemish people by calling them a "brotherly people". If we would take their side we would benefit of the war. And many of us did... Especially in the part between the North Sea and the river "Schelde ", the part of the country originally called "Flanders".
After the war these people were treated as war criminals and were often captured, abused and stigmatised. This was probably the first and still most important reason of the Flemish nationalistic movement. They wanted amnesty for the collaborators.
As things usually do, it all got out of hand. Movements were started, parties were founded and hate and intolerance were born. The most well known result of this movement is the neo-fascist and nationalistic party Vlaams Blok (currently known as: Vlaams Belang). They currently have about 20% of the votes in Flanders. A couple of years ago, they reached peaks up till 25% and in some cities 30% and more.
CD&V (formerly known as CVP) was always the safe vote as this party stood somewhere in the middle of the political spectrum. But nowadays they seem to have taken a swift turn towards the right. Not only are they teaming up with another nationalistic party (NVA), but also are they taking over their views! They 've always been a popular party so people continue to vote for them, not always knowing what they vote for...

I stand firmly in this matter. Belgium is not to be split. The history of Belgium, Flanders and Wallonia is too complex and tied in all matters. I long for an increasing influence and unity of all the European nations. I think a real future lies in the European Union. I don't think splitting up and separating populations will bring any benefit for us. As the Benelux was the first step towards a united Europe, we especially should be proud of what we reached. The only reasons are financially inspired and pure selfish. The only reason people are buying this, is because it's force fed by the media, the companies and anyone with money!

The Flemish flag is not my flag! I won't ever think of it that way. The flags you see here waving above are disgusting misinterpretations. Any Belgian should be outraged about this. They were misleading and bring forth nothing but hatred and an ongrowing conflict. We are not growing apart because of cultural differences, there are cultural differences because we are growing apart!

I still believe: Eendracht Maakt Macht! L'Union Fait La Force!