After about 150 days of endless negotiations Belgium is still plagued by the lack of a new government. Even Russian state television has shown interest in the matter. Inhabitants of Russia, a country suffering for more than a decade of secessionist violence in its Caucasian soft underbelly, now seem to show equal interest in the possible split of a small country far to their west.
I borrow the above title from our friend Donatien's horrid tale of Les 120 journées de Sodome ou l'école du libertinage. Certainly, circumstances for Belgian citizens are far from being as terrible as for the victims in the tale. Nevertheless certain parallels became gradually apparent to me. Just like the four wealthy men that gathered for 120 days abusing 24 young people, Belgian party élites seem to have taken the entire country and its 10 million inhabitants hostage. Just like the tale, each new month seems to introduce a more aggressive form of abuse.
Radicals and moderates from both the majority Dutch-speaking and minority French-speaking sides produce new intolerable acts and insults vis-??-vis each other. Meanwhile, the population awaits its new government while becoming the laughing stock of the Western world.
The Belgian governmental crisis also provides a handy example for authoritarian leaders to criticize the ability of democracy to work. Putin did not compare Kosovo to the Moldovan region of Transdnjestria - which would have been more logic - but rather aimed literally at Europe's (and more importantly, the European Union's) heart by comparing Kosovo to the Belgian situation.
So what is the problem? Why can't Belgians get along with each other anymore? The truth is that we have grown apart over a long time and that we literally don't understand each other. French-speaking Belgians often choose not to learn the Dutch language of the majority. For good reason it seems, since English or Spanish might indeed be more useful in a world that has become a global village. Dutch-speaking Belgians increasingly refuse to speak French out of frustration with the others' inability to speak Dutch, and younger generations don't see the point in learning the language of Dumas and Duras anymore.
As a Dutch-speaking Belgian I can't really say that I fear Belgium's splitting up. Yet the incompetence of our leaders not getting anything decided does worry me. The reality is that my family and friends in southern Belgium are utterly incapable of speaking Dutch and that my friends to the north become more and more radical towards their French-speaking compatriots. And somewhat ashamed, even I must admit that the level of my knowledge of French has seen better days.
And this is where politics come in. Francophile extremists - and increasingly those perceived as moderates - categorize Dutch as a peasant language not as important as a world language like French. They are ignoring, of course, that those with whom they share bed and table might feel hurt by such comments. Flemish radicals call for an end of Francophone linguistic imperialism and could not come up with a more original solution than to replace it with Dutch linguistic imperialism.
And so, both languages are hijacked by people who have no respect for the intrinsic value and beauty of each people's native tongue. French has become an ugly language to many Dutch speakers as it is increasingly identified with arrogance and haugthy attitudes. Meanwhile French speakers increasingly perceive Dutch as an ugly output of a semi-fascist Flemish population.
Budget, the economy and the environment all seem to be important matters worthy of being negotiated in government talks. The absurdity is that talks on these issues for the most part were concluded a long time ago. These so-called symbolic issues that revolve around language are all that remain in the public sphere.
As a result, our politicians now do not discuss our future employment or retirement but excel in their growing incompetence by adhering to narrow-minded linguistic fetishes. Just like Albee's Martha and George, we seem deadlocked in an ongoing fight leading us nowhere. Government negotiations in Belgium have indeed become a school of political incompetence and a mockery for what a modern democracy should entail. As my faculty advisor, Richard Katz, probably would say: "It is silly!"
