Separatist rumblings...

...conveniently in the heart of Europe:

Several months ago, elections were organized in Belgium. The outcome of these elections was that a center-right coalition would be formed. After months of negotiations, however, a crisis broke out. Now it seems possible that the tiny country of Belgium could split apart into two separate states.

Belgium is, in many ways, a strange country. It is young; it only came into being in the 19th century. And it consists of two very different parts: one part is in the south where people speak French, the other part is the north where people speak Dutch. Until 1830 Belgium as a whole was part of the Netherlands, but Belgians wanted independence, fought for it and got it.

Language, though, is not where the differences between the two parts end. The northern region does not just speak Dutch, it is also much richer than the south. The south of Belgium is less developed and has a smaller population. While 58% of the Belgian people live in Flanders (Dutch speaking), only 32% live in Wallonia (the French-speaking part).

The relationship between the two regions has always been troubled. They have always fought about who should hold the most power and why. Furthermore, the two main groups have always lived independent from each other: neither side communicates with the other. One famous saying is that the only things all Belgian have in common are “the king, the football team, and some beers.”

The Economist goes into additional detail.

This shows continuing and further problems with the continued centralization of Europe. I noted two-years ago to the day that the "Long Goodbye" of the European Union was already underway, due to problems with the harmonization of criminal law across the European countries. Problems due to legal traditions in different member countries were becoming problematic.

Here, in the Belgian situation, you have an already existent country trying to come to grips with different ethnic groups and traditions. This is not something that could wind up not even confined to Belgium, as countries such as France and Spain could run into similar problems.

If there are problems such as these in EU member countries now, we can only imagine what kind of problems the EU could face as the Eurocrats continue to try and eliminate European national identities.