Talis is a History major at Saint Francis and is currently studying abroad in Lille, France.
Since I arrived in Lille two months ago, I have traveled to or have travelled via the country of Belgium a whopping seven times.
Until recently, I had merely thought of the country as a filler space between France and the Netherlands, with few remarkable qualities apart from it being home to Brussels, which serves as the capital of the European Union and houses the headquarters for NATO.
However, lurking beneath the home of the European bureaucracy lies a country with an unlikely past and an uncertain future.
Officially know as the Kingdom of Belgium, Belgium sits nestled between France, the Netherlands, Germany and Luxembourg. It is officially recognized as a constitutional monarchy, one led by King Phillippe of Belgium and Prime Minister Bart De Wever.
It is home to 11.8 million people and is split into three principal regions: Flanders, Wallonia and Brussels.
The adjective to describe modern Belgium’s origins is “compromise.” In 1815 at the Congress of Vienna, the nations of Austria, Russia, Britain and France met to redraw European borders. One of the compromises made at this convention was the creation of the United Kingdom of the Netherlands, which comprised itself of the former Dutch Republic, the former Austrian Netherlands (roughly modern Belgium) and Luxembourg under the Dutch House of Orange.
The intent was to create a strong buffer state on France’s northern border, in hopes of smothering any future French expansion plans. However, in 1830, a Nationalist revolution broke out in Brussels, and Belgium declared independence. The aforementioned powers recognized it as a neutral state and installed Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, a German prince.
However, the birth of Belgium also gave way to internal tensions. From the get-go, Belgium established itself a Francophone nation, making the language ubiquitous – something the Flemish, a group making up an equal amount of the population – despised.
To make matters worse, the Flemish were also the poorer group, as opposed to the wealthy Wallonians. During both world wars, Flemish troops found themselves commanded by French officers, further adding to the tension. Furthermore, Flemish nationalist groups were found to have been collaborating with the Nazis, damaging their credibility and stoking more tensions.
After the second world war however, things began to turn for the Flemish. In the 1960s and ‘70s, the decline of the coal industry in Wallonia and an emergence of trade and foreign investment in Flanders flipped the economic conditions of the two regions, stoking resentment among the Flemish.
As a result, political factions in Belgium tend to be more tribal than ideological. Voting in Belgium tends to rely heavily on linguistic ties, creating a nightmare for governance. The Belgian constitution requires that the governing coalition be split between both languages, but both groups tend to have different priorities.
The Flemish tend to be more rightwing economically, while the Walloons have stayed to the left. Belgium has gone extended periods without a government, with a 541 and 642-day crisis. The 541-day crisis was spurred after the Flemish separatist N-VA party won and was forced to sit with francophone parties, something that proved impossible.
A similar phenomenon occurred in 2019 and 2020, and the impasse was only broken in March of 2020 in response to the COVID outbreak.
The current coalition, led by Bart de Wever of the N-VA, has been in power since February of 2025. The coalition’s agenda is largely conservative, with tax reform, higher defense spending, and stricter migration policies being keystone elements of its agenda.
Although the federal government is operating without widespread strife, the Brussels region only recently broke a 613-day impasse where the region was operating without a government.
The quarrel was only settled after lawmakers locked themselves into the University Foundation building for three days of serious talks. It was dubbed a “conclave” and after the deal was reached, a staff member donned cardinal robes and declared “habemus government.”
If history serves as our guide, it will only be a matter of time before another impasse emerges, creating more chaos and uncertainty in Belgium.
