N-VA's plans "are like Brexit"!
Former Belgian foreign minister and socialist supremo Frank Vandenbroucke has likened Flemish nationalist plans for a Belgian confederation to Brexit.
Frank Vandenbroucke, the former Belgian foreign minister and socialist supremo, has likened Flemish nationalist plans for a Belgian confederation to Britain's intention of leaving the EU.
Mr Vandenbroucke compared the N-VA's confederalism proposals that mean the two confederated states, Flanders and Wallonia, would decide for themselves what they still do together, to a fata morgana in the desert, something that doesn't exist.
In Sunday's general election Flanders voted centre-right, Francophonia centre-left. Bart De Wever's N-VA believes this is proof that the country should evolve towards a confederal state in which the confederated entities are nearly completely independent and only retain a few joint powers.
"It's unworkable and impossible to realise" says Frank Vandenbroucke.
"Brexit is the best example of a fata morgana in the desert. Brits have been promised something that is impossible. A pure Brexit is impossible without handing Northern Ireland to the Republic of Ireland. Confederalism isn't possible unless you hand Brussels over to Frenchspeakers”.
Under N-VA plans the people of Brussels will have to decide between the Flemish and the Walloon system: "You can't sort this without particularly complicated constructions that work poorly. The people of Brussels won't agree. As a result you err further into the desert."