The Guardian.
Amid the statuary, marble and lavish wood panelling inside Antwerp's
Renaissance-era town hall, a slow revolution is being plotted. Strolling
in the autumn sunshine outside, Martin Roef seems an unlikely radical,
but the retired lawyer harbours few doubts about the machinations of the
politicians inside.
"The problem's down south. It's the
French-speakers. They eat from the north, they eat from us and they want
it to stay that way. We should split up and make Flanders a separate
country. We'd be better living together but separately. Perhaps De Wever
will make a difference."
He is referring to the rising star of
Belgian politics, who has just conquered the town hall in a victory that
merits the term historic. Bart de Wever, leader of the New Flemish
Alliance, is a separatist and nationalist bent on redrawing the map of
the European Union.
Like Alex Salmond in Edinburgh or Artur Mas in Barcelona, De Wever is
far from a fringe extremist. He is a mainstream conservative who wants
to break Belgium apart and whose support is soaring.
"The end goal is clear for De Wever. He wants Flanders as an independent state in a democratic Europe," said Lieven de Winter, a professor of politics and expert on European regionalism at Belgium's Louvain University.
Catalonia goes to the polls this weekend in a fateful early election tipped to produce a mandate for an independence referendum. Scotland
has its vote on separate statehood in two years. Around the same time
in 2014, De Wever looks likely to be fighting national and regional
elections in Belgium from a position of strength, seeking support for
the gradual break-up of the country between Dutch-speaking Flanders in
the north and French-speaking Wallonia in the south.
"He will
certainly be calling for a form of confederalism, meaning two separate
states that do a couple of things together," said De Winter.
"He
has a new vision for politics, for the city, and for the country," said
Robert van de Voorde, a post office worker. "He's very radical. He's
saying we Flemish have had enough. I don't want a break-up, but it's
very possible. A lot of Flemish think it would be better."
Antwerp
v Brussels, Edinburgh v London, Barcelona v Madrid – in this tussle of
regionalism against national capitals, Europe is both cause and effect.
