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| Europe |
| Belgian PM offers to resign after gov't fails to resolve linguistic spat |
| 2008-07-15 |
| Hoe zegt u dat in Belg? Belgian media say Prime Minister Yves Leterme has offered his resignation after his government failed to agree on more self-rule for Belgium's Dutch and French-speaking camps. "Merde!" "Ratten!" The VRT television network says Leterme gave his resignation to King Albert II at the royal palace. It is unclear if it would be accepted. "Ik treed af!" "Eh? Wot's that?" "Je démissionne!" "Eh?" "I'm outta here!" "Oh. So you are. Very well. Goodbye... Alfonse? Who was the man who just left?" "The prime minister, yer majesty." "Oh. We have a prime minister?" "Not any more." Leterme has been struggling to get his Cabinet to agree on proposed constitutional reforms that have paralyzed Belgian politics for more than a year. "Can we just get a little bit of agreement here? Just a little bit?" "Non." "Geen manier." "Ummm... That doesn't make any sense in Dutch." "It doesn't make any sense in Belgian, either!" He had set a deadline of Tuesday for reaching a deal on the autonomy issues. Flemish parties want the prosperous Dutch-speaking north of Belgium to be more autonomous. Francophone parties accuse Dutch-speakers of trying to cut loose the economically lagging Wallonia area. Maybe they should try another language. Is anybody still using Lettish? How about Luvian? |
| Posted by:Fred |
| #5 These jackasses want to be the seat of the EU-Fascists and they can't even overcome their own divisions. Typical |
| Posted by: ebrown2 2008-07-15 23:28 |
| #4 Well heck. It's small enough and it's already 75% of the way there........make it the EU equivalent to Washington DC! Then any language is fine and no one has any power!! (except of course the oligarchy) |
| Posted by: AlanC 2008-07-15 16:34 |
| #3 Partition Belgium. Give the Phlegmish to the Netherlands and the Wal-loons to France. Give the King a villa on the Italian riviera. Everybody's happy. |
| Posted by: mojo 2008-07-15 14:33 |
| #2 Lettish? That would be the Latvians, Fred. My paternal grandmother, the linguist and educator, was involved in formalizing that one, which moved it from the status of peasant dialect to proper language. I'm going to have to google Luvian. You speak Dutch, too? I'm jealous! I only had a year to work on that one. But you've definitely got the Belgians pegged. When we were there, the locals chose to speak in English rather than be forced to speak in the other language. All except the Germans over in their little corner of the country, who just desperately didn't want to be forced to rejoin Germany. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2008-07-15 12:53 |
| #1 Superb snark, Fred LOL |
| Posted by: lotp 2008-07-15 12:39 |