"There's also a few people here who speak German, but much like Belgium does, we'll pretend they don't exist " as a Belgian, I confirm. During the pandemic, press conferences were made and when someone was speaking French, it was translated in Dutch and sign language and when someone was speaking Dutch, it was translated in French and in sign language. However, the "Prime Minister" of the German community spoke once during these press conferences and it was so funny because no one knew him and absolutely nothing was translated. It was 5 minutes of pure German on national television just as a reminder that people who speak German in Belgium are not a myth
I weep for those Germans gone astray. Maybe your waffles are just irresistable enough that it makes an unaknowledged existence on your lands tolerable or even desirable🤔
@@TheUnillustratedChaos We just got a Tiny strip of German land after WW1 that's all of all those who got land we are the only ones to have made it a national language.
Wallonia's worst rival is Flanders. Flanders' worst rival is Wallonia. It's only natural for Belgium (Wallonia+Flanders) to be the rival of Belgium (Flanders+Wallonia).
Luxemburg is a country. But then there's the Province of Luxembourg which borders Luxemburg and its regional capital is Arlon. And it's part of Wallonia.
As a Belgian, I can tell you all that having a government or not having one is exactly the same Edit: We got a government now. Not a very democratic one but still, it's better than nothing... I guess...
Thanks to the 6 other governments for the regions and communities that hold things together while the federal level is stuck. Oh, the previous government that is still in place but can't take on new projects, only manage the day-to-day stuff so it's not like everything stops
So you missed a pretty important detail; One of the reasons why not having a *federal* government for so long makes so little difference in Belgium, is because Belgium has 6 full-fledged governments, all with equal power to the federal government. Not having a "government" just means we only have 5 governments, and actually has very little impact on us aside from slightly-more-than-usual tax money disappearing down the bureaucratic wormhole. Because of the success of the nationalist parties in recent years, the federal government has been drained of a lot of power, to the point where right now it's mostly just an empty shell that is responsible for not a whole lot of things (from the top of my head, one of the few things that actually matter that the federal government is still in charge of are pensions, and to an extent healthcare). As such, aside from not being able to pass new federal laws, the lack of this 6th government actually makes very little difference to Belgium and the Belgians. In case you're curious, these are the 6 governments of Belgium; - Federal government (the one we don't have right now) - Flemish government for the Flemish region and Dutch-speaking community (these 2 used to be separate) - The Walloon government for the Wallonia region - The French-speaking government for the French-speaking community - The German-speaking government for the German-speaking community - The government of the Brussels Capital Region (which is the third semi-autonomous region of Belgium that is its own technically bilingual but actually French-speaking island inside Flemish territory)
I've been following Belgian politics for a while because the stuff that goes on in this country is absolutely insane... but what I don't get is why there's a separate government for Dutch speakers and for Flanders, and for French speakers and Wallonia (well the latter makes sense because Brussels is French, but still.) Also I would add that Brussels is becoming more bilingual as more Flemings move in, if I remember right, recent surveys say that about 15% of the population speaks Dutch at home.
@@redcoat4348 So actually there isn't a separate government for the Dutch-speaking community and Flanders; they got merged into one Flemish government relatively recently. The Wallonian government(s) have not followed suit, however. Part of the reason for this is that the languages that are spoken in regions don't exactly follow the borders of Flanders and Wallonia. As such, the idea is that a French-speaking government can offer education and culture to French-speaking families living in Flemish territory. The whole thing is obviously nuts, but that's how it is. As for Brussels; officially, Brussels is bilingual. This, however, is widely understood to be a fairytale told by politicians in an attempt to keep the peace. It, too, is one of the reasons that the Flemish separatist parties have been so successful. I am a Flemish, Dutch-speaking Belgian. I don't go to Brussels often (in fact I left Belgium 5 years ago), but whenever I am in Brussels, I know that Dutch is of no use to me and all communications will be either in my broken attempt at French, or in English. It's a mess, and it doesn't really work, but Belgium really is a bit of a case of "this doesn't work, but if there's anything we've learnt over the years it's that none of our neighbouring countries can be trusted to rule us, so whatever mess we're in is still a better mess than we'd be in otherwise". In my personal opinion, there's too many governments in Belgium (no shit, right?), and a big step towards making the running of the country less inefficient (so that we can stop being one of if not the most heavily taxed countries in Europe) would be to get rid of 5 of the 6 governments. However, the obvious catch here is that no politician is ever going to run with this idea, let alone get it through a vote, because they'd be putting themselves out of a job by doing so. I think tensions between Flanders and Wallonia have caused a lot of Belgians to become very short-sighted and lose track of the bigger picture. The separatist movement in Flanders seems to be mostly fuelled by 2 things; * Wallonia has a high unemployment rate and brings in very little money compared to Flanders, yet because of the system in place in Belgium all money that gets spent needs to be split 50/50 between Flanders and Wallonia. A lot of people are screaming for this to change. * Flanders is, nowadays, the economic powerhouse. This used to be very different. Not even that long ago, Wallonia was the wealthier part of the country, with Flanders being the poorer part. However, there was also a very big divide with Flemish people all being expected to learn French and be grateful if they were offered a job in Wallonia. The Belgian constitution wasn't even translated into Dutch (a language that the majority of the country speaks!) until ~50 years ago. As such, Wallonia was more wealthy, and Flanders got little attention nor respect. The generation of Flemish that grew up in this relative poverty and inequality now have the power to vote, but also pass on their ideas to their children, and are, to put it mildly, a little bit salty about the situation that Wallonia put them through and are now looking for revenge. This also isn't helped by the fact that to date all Flemish children need to learn French, but the majority of Wallonians do not have to learn Dutch and in fact do not speak it at all. This is also part of what has caused Brussels to become ever more solidified as a French-speaking region. ... Alright, that turned out to be a much longer reply than I was anticipating it to be, but I hope it's at least informative. Just to be clear, I'm pretty neutral about Flanders vs Wallonia. I'm from a border town and emigrated years ago, and personally care very little about fights between regions within Belgium. I think the whole separatist movement is sort of silly, and that (aside from getting rid of a couple of governments) the solution here lies in letting go of inequalities of the past and striving for equality rather than revenge, but as these things go they usually get worse before they tend to get better (if ever).
Seems like a lot of these problems could be fixed just by providing services in either Dutch of French, that would make it easier to keep up the idea of Brussels being a bilingual city instead of people moving in and adapting to French, which only works to piss off Flemish. I do understand that there are too many governments in Belgium and that this leads to more tax revenue being wasted, though there's probably something to be said about trying to maintain cultural autonomy for each region, so that people can still be educated or interact with the government in their native languages. The U.K. handles things pretty well in this regard. As such as people say that the regional parliaments are white elephants, they are useful in maintaining local needs, while still being very obviously subservient to the national government. A better example would be India, every state speaks its own language, but is subservient to the national government which operates in Hindi and English. Cultural and linguistic autonomy is maintained very well and taxes aren't much higher due to the fact that there's rather minimal bureaucracy. This is all despite the fact India has *20* official languages. Belgium not being able to adapt with 3 says more about inefficient bureaucracy failing to do the job it was meant to do in decentralizing power so much.
Part of the reason Belgium became independent from the Netherlands was because they were Catholic. They are to some extent unified by their culture. And there's also the fact that they both live very similar lives to each other, though they're separated by language, there are many things they share in common that they don't with France or the Netherlands. But with only two languages to deal with, it should not be too hard to make sure that the country can be maintained through its diversity, making sure that French and Dutch have equal status throughout the country.
@@RobinJ You make some very good points. One from me: Having lived in Wallonia for 14 years, the schools are obliged to teach a foreign language and everyone has to take it. The problem is the lack of Dutch teachers... I put my children into "immersion" classes in Flemish (note: _not_ Dutch) and that went for eighteen months before they couldn't find teachers any more. Then the children that took Dutch had difficulty passing the exams as the teaching standard was pretty low. The other language available is English, and the general attitude is "Choose between English - the language with international leanings understood almost everywhere? OR Flemish - spoken in a small part of the world and so popular that even the Dutch all speak English? Hmmmm, now let me think." Time was when French was the language of government and the upper classes, and all major towns spoke French - Ghent, Ypres, Hasselt, Mechelen etc. with the working class in the north using Flemish and the south Walloon. After WW1 when Belgium had four years under the Germans who were not nice about it and preferred the Flemish (they spoke a language that could be sneered at as a debased dialect of German - but German none the less - rather than speaking a debased dialect of French, or even worse real French - the language of the enemy), the ideas of Belgium happening to have two languages but one people were gradually overturned (with lots of help from Woodrow Wilson - POTUS #28 - opening the Pandora's box of popular self-determination) in favour of three languages and political divisions along linguistic lines. I remember reading a National Geographic issue on Belgium back in the late 1970's which predicted Belgium's demise into separate countries within ten years. Hasn't happened yet...
@@Duncan_Campbell It's actually the capital of the country of Luxembourg as well as the Belgian province that neighbours the country of Luxembourg of which Luxembourg is the capital! confused?
Somalia's had a provisional government since 2012. They don't control most of the territory in the country though, so I guess the memes are pretty accurate lol.
Actually many Belgians don't even understand how their government works. We probably have more ministers per capita then any other country in the world, like 9 health ministers for instance. Belgium is a constitutional monarchy in a federal state. So basically the King has the executive power, the chamber of representatives the legislative power and the courts the judicial power. However the linguistic regions have their own government with certain competencies such as education, health care, social stuff, etc. So there is the federal government, the Walloon region government, the Flemish region government, the government of the German speaking part, the French speaking community with it's government and the Dutch speaking community with it's government too. The fact is that politics in Belgium is so decentralized that it can function without a federal government.
Actually the Flemish Region and Flemish Community merged to form a single government. It's mainly the south that has problems with efficiency and cutting back on unnecessary institutions.
Bosnia has 14 governments, 14 health care ministers, 14 education ministers etc... In many ways the two countries share similar issues. Also, Bosnia was on the way to be without a government for 400-500 days, something like that. Now one of the two Bosnian regions has been with technical government for more than 24 months. Technical government basically means having a government without having a government so Belgium and Bosnia are hand in hand in that aspect.
As a Belgian myself, I can tell you that we mostly don’t care if there’s a government or not. Sometimes we even make fun of it. For example, when someone says something about the government, we’d say “what government?” because there was none. Recently, they did finally succeeded in making one, but literally nothing changed. Everything is still the same. They’re calling it the “Vivaldi-coalition” or “Vivaldi-government” because just like Vivaldi’s 4 seasons, it took about 4 seasons to make a government.
You fool! That's what they are trying to do! They want to make their government so complicated that you and everyone else on this earth are so bored of the politics that you stop listening to it! And then they'll start doing some big no-no stuff and no one will notice because they lost interest do to the complexity of the politics. Get with the program kid, you learn this in Conspiracies 101.
Weird. If a year ago I said, "A virus gets named after a Mexican beer, and when Cinco de Myao falls on Taco Tuesday, no one will go to the Mexican restaurants," I could have gotten thousand to one odds.
I remember Spain went without a seated parliament for a year and a half, which saw unprecedented economic growth because the rules didn’t change every few minutes.
I remember one of our politicians saying something along the lines of: "If the people catch on to the fact that Belgium worked so long without a government, we're screwed."
I think the same thing whenever one of our major parties tries to convince us we should freak out over the prospect of a government shutdown. When things more or less progress as normal, they get concerned that we might actually prefer the government stay shut down, so make it a priority to start it up again.
Belgian here, and I have to say that we are looking to break our own record soon! I also have to add that the way he said Charles Michel was really funny
@@binamertens6782 We are at or near 630 days. Every day it passes we crush our previous record by a day! lol I'm glad HI didn't talk about our national waffle reserve and plans to take over the planet. Thank god no one has figure about that, yet.
Fun extra fact: all the political parties in belgian have an (unwritten*) pact to never form a government with VB (the far-right extremists), further complicating the formation of a government, seeing that absolutely nobody wants to govern with them (except maybe the standard Flemish Nationalists, the NVA. But it's impossible to get a majority for them, seeing that half the seats are flemish and half the seats are walloon) *: It was a written pact made in the nineties, when "Vlaams Blok" (Flemish Bloc) released a manifesto that was extremely racist and borderline facist. This led to a racism lawsuit towards Vlaams Blok, causing them to "dissolve" into a new party: "Vlaams Belang" (Flemish Interests), with exactly the same members and stances. This also meant the "Cordon Sanitaire" around Vlaams Blok dissolved, but it's still held up in practice.
2:31 Sidenote: some political parties are still national and aren't divided between Flemish and Walloon versions and some other political parties simply don't have a counterpart in the other half of the country (a party that supports Flemish independence would only exist in Flanders for example)
Is Flanders and Flemish the same? I asked coz here in India we were taught Flemish but in the video it is Flanders and I was like- ''what is flanders?''
PTB/PvdA is the only major national party in Belgium, there are also the flemish national (N-VA and VB) and a small french only social liberal party (DeFi)
@@garret1930 Well, from what I know of the situation, Wallonia is quite poor in comparison to Flanders and as such they are probably not going to want to give up the goldmine as it were.
Waffles are this weird tourist obsession that everyone just kind of rolled with. I know hardly anyone who regularly eats waffles. Fries and beer, that's where it's at!!!
Tip when saying French words that have accents on the e (maybe other languages too) : the accent overrides *everything.* the è in Wilmès is an "eh" and it will be the same in every other word, so it should be said as "Will mess" which isn't very reassuring for a prime minister.
the only reason she is prime minister is because she was the only french speaking minister who could speak a bit dutch. this sounds fun in a country where 60% speaks dutch, but the reality is, this is the reality.
Things still working, got my govt assistance money, corrupt people are now actually being sent to prison, and covid-19 is being kept under control. I don't really care about elections any more.
@@sirBrouwer Yes, but Northern Ireland is extremely autonomus, so it is just as harmful to the citizens of Northern Ireland as the case is in Belgium today
@@sirBrouwer It was a big problem in NI tho, legislation that came in in other parts of the UK was three years late arriving in NI, teachers pay rises for instance was delayed by years as the NI assembly needed to approve it but there was none. It also allowed Westminster to strong arm legislation through that they wanted put through in NI undermining our autonomy. e.g when they forced through the abortion and gay marriage bill, While i believe that overall NI would have voted for gay marriage had it come to a referendum i do think that abortion would not have gone through, leading to huge controversies as it not only legalised it but made it one of the most liberal in the world. I'm not going to comment on my personal views on these topics but i think that it was undemocratic for Westminster to do this.
Oh, and here's the best bit - There's also quota on how many ministers can be french speaking and how many can be dutch speaking to prevent any overrepresentation. Not to mention that the federal government doesn't really bear that much importance as the local governments of each region - Brussels has its own government, and so does Wallonia, Flanders, and the little German bit around Eupen. They have assembled fairly quickly, therefore regions work as intended. After all, Belgium might be a monarchy formally, but it's more of a union or a federation by nature.
Rybread52 like everything in Belgium, it’s complicated. Even though people might speak both languages, the parties are linked to one of the languages. They might have the same party in the other language, but hat is seen as 2 parties. And they want to balance out how many speak one or the other language. As said, we like to keep things unnecessarily complicated for unknown reasons.
"Wilmes has the power to do basic bureaucratic oversight, but without a governing majority she can't pass any new legislation, appoint new officials, handle the budget deficit, or even fund the acquisition of another invisible pet monkey." - Half as Interesting
@@jonlag3867 not quite. The current Prime Minister, in a classic Politician, Is unhappy amd wants a 4th Election he thinks might make him win. But by this point, he is very disliked by the public. +The whole Virus thing right now ain't helping
@@thibautmercier4526 i find it hard to believe that there is a viable party that gets enough votes thats far left. Are you sure your definitions are in order? You are telling me a party of anarchists is getting enough votes to sway how givernment is selected?
"There is also a German speaking part but like Belgium we're going to pretend that they don't exist" As a Belgian i agree, because of covid we were on vacation in our own country last week in de ardennen wich is in the south-east (during the floods so that was fun) and we passed trough a german speaking village and we were like "huh are we already in Germany, I never saw a sign" basically because we forget german speaking belgians exist
I've got friends in both Belgium and Israel. They told me exactly what they think of their national politicians. And for neither country it will be wise to repeat their words on here as I don't want a ban for swearing...
As a belgian, today is the second time i heard we still don't have a governement (the first was when we passed the 1year without governement mark, i've seen a meme about it) And i still don't care
"All right guys, so it turns out that even though Belgium doesn't technically have a government, it still has, like, a government." Incredible. It happens to be the exact opposite of Brazil! (Brazilian guy here, galera. Curtam a piada e não se matem nos comentários. Hue!)
HAI: and much like the Belgian government, we'll pretend they don't exist. German Belgians: *oh wow, look at me, a nothing made out of nothing* Me: I can relate😢
To be fair, german speaking Belgians are probably the most privileged ethnic minority anywhere in the world. Even tho they only make up a very small percentage of the total population and are concentrated in a very small region, they enjoy all the rights the other two communities have.
Hello Sam! There is a tiny mistake that only a Belgian could spot on the Belgian map displayed on your video. I am from Belgium ;) The language border was not correctly drawn. It is indeed the horizontal line that splits Belgium in 2 just South of Brussels. Then, in the Flemish territory, as you correctly drewon the map, there is a little piece of Walloon land enclaved in Flemish territory corresponding to the town of Comines-Warneton. The same exists for Flanders and this enclave located in Voeren was missing from the map. Also, the pronunciation of the 2 prime ministers was not correct. Sophie Wilmès sounds like "Will mess", which is not what she did. You could refer to google translate for Charles Michel. Whenever you visit Belgium, you will be warmly welcome to visit the country! Take care
One small mistake I noticed: on the map of the two regions of Belgium, the municipality of Voeren was shown to be part of Wallonia, while it is in fact part of Flanders
@@LittleSparklingStars it is a country in the exact same way that Scotland and Wales and England are countries, I would think of a union but Westminster has makes all the big laws of each country
"Belgium goes 621 days without government" *People in the comments saying their country went longer than that. Me: Amateurs. I'm a foreigner living in Kuwait which doesn't even have a government.
@@user-eu6sj2gj1t The UK government essentially acted as a caretaker Government when Stormont collapsed, there wasn't really any new legislation passed apart from the legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage
Its the crazy thing lol many are adamant in saying how evil England is for holding onto NI. Meanwhile in England "can you guys just vote to join the Republic of Ireland already... NI protestant remainers: NO!!!
Technically we still have 5 goverments, 1 flemish, 1 wallonisch, 1 for the german speaking community 1 for brussels one for the french and german speaking and only the federal goverment is what is so difficult to form because of what he said
But none of those are the 'Belgian Government', which is what the video is about. I'm sure all the Belgian cities have a mayor and city council as well, but they can't pass laws for the whole country so they're irrelevant.
@@michaelheliotis5279 Nah, the regional parliaments most definitely can pass laws, but only if they're within their area. (Like how states in the US can pass laws that only apply for their state). www.flemishparliament.eu/about-the-flemish-parliament/what-are-the-main-functions-the-flemish-parliament That being said, the whole federal government formation has become quite the circus. I'm pretty sure that if Covid didn't happen we would have had another election by now.
@@saadsheraz3830 Luxembourg is a tax heaven used by super rich people and corporations(SUPER low tax rates etc) and Germany has no speed limits on Autobahn(german form of highways/motorways)
It’s actually like this in most other European countries as well it’s just that other European countries have a smaller number of parties which means the time without the government is way shorter going as short as minutes.
@@jeffbenton6183 Well we have a tolerance policy in the Netherlands where weed is technically illegal but it's tolerated to be sold and possessed in small amounts. But the production still is very much illegal. So you have the weird situation where the 'legal' weed shops have to buy the drugs from criminals. It just doesn't make any sense. How it's done in the US in certain states like Colorado where everything from production to consumption is fully legal is way better. But try to change anything here and the right wing parties will block everything.
As someone who was in Belgium on a School Trip during their time without a Government, we didn't notice a thing. Coincidentally I was there with my politics and economics class, visiting Brussels, but we weren't informed that Belgium literally had no government while we were there. We didn't notice a thing in society that said "Hey we have no leadership right now". After experiencing a similar situation here in Germany after our elections, given we've only had no government for a few weeks and, I think the old government was still kinda doing things while the coalition was formed, we also didn't notice a thing. Daily life didn't change besides the fact that "Oh what do u think will happen with the government?" was a question often encountered.
5:11 I love that minority governments are "sort of a government but also sort of isn't". Meanwhile, here in Denmark, we usually only have minority governments. The last time we had a majority government was for a few years in the 1990s and before that in the 1970s. Our current government only controls 48 out of 179 seats in parliament. No single political party has had an absolute majority in parliament for at least 100 years. I absolutely recommend it.
I'm increasingly starting to think that absolute majorities are the death of representative democracy. That said, the way Denmark makes minority governments work is very interesting; just shows that you can make almost anything functional as long as all parties are willing to be pragmatic about cooperation.
@@rjfaber1991 In the Netherlands we have a 4 party coalition majority government, which seems to have less issues than our previous 2 coalitions. And those consisted out of 2 and 3 parties respectively.
I'm a huge fan of minority governments. It does force cooperation and comprises. A major problem, as I see it, is the First-past-the-post voting system. It often leads to two party systems, which are just terrible for a representative democracy. Having many parties in parliament undoubtedly lets more voters feel represented. Party-list proportional representation is the way to go instead.
Always find it funny how everyone I know hates the French because we as flemish people are forced to learn French at school. We don’t like the The Walloons as well but prefer them over the French because the number “70” and “90” are easier in Walloons French.
"There's also a few people here who speak German, but much like Belgium does, we'll pretend they don't exist " as a Belgian, I confirm. During the pandemic, press conferences were made and when someone was speaking French, it was translated in Dutch and sign language and when someone was speaking Dutch, it was translated in French and in sign language. However, the "Prime Minister" of the German community spoke once during these press conferences and it was so funny because no one knew him and absolutely nothing was translated. It was 5 minutes of pure German on national television just as a reminder that people who speak German in Belgium are not a myth
It was priceless, and maybe that was the only fun part of the press conference
I weep for those Germans gone astray. Maybe your waffles are just irresistable enough that it makes an unaknowledged existence on your lands tolerable or even desirable🤔
@@TheUnillustratedChaos We just got a Tiny strip of German land after WW1 that's all of all those who got land we are the only ones to have made it a national language.
@@robindemeyer8960 ✨🙂thx for that. I learned something new today✨
The "bielefeld" of belgium i suppose ^^
"Belgium's bitter rival: also Belgium"
I lost it. This is so true.
Wallonia's worst rival is Flanders. Flanders' worst rival is Wallonia.
It's only natural for Belgium (Wallonia+Flanders) to be the rival of Belgium (Flanders+Wallonia).
Wait, he wasn't talking about Antwerp's superiority complex?
@@Dutch_is_a_Weird_Language to cover that topic they would need to make an entire video about it
I think before that, we broke the record held by Iraq.
Not as true as it is in the US. :(
As a proud Belgian, I'm honestly annoyed by the amount of waffle-jokes foreigners make about us. I only average at about 1 waffle a day
Are belgians shaped like waffles?
@@davestylehenry rather like fries or beer
Wow, you live in Belgium and you aren't muslim? That's pretty rare
Beer, Waffles, Fries, Fried Waffles, Fried Beer, Beered Fries, Fried Fries
@@Flying_Kitty i can agree im a muslim in belgium
"And whatever the hell Luxembourg is!"
Tax havens, mostly.
Everyone asks what is Luxembourg, but never *how* is Luxembourg.
Bernardo Mercado ☹️😟😔
I visited the country last year. Lovely place.
Luxemburg is a country. But then there's the Province of Luxembourg which borders Luxemburg and its regional capital is Arlon. And it's part of Wallonia.
@@pleepler Named that way to upset Luxembourg after it broke away from Belgium. And also to confuse tourist
Belgium: argues over politics
USA: argues over politics
Liechtenstein: argues over Airbnb
Liechtenstein*
Me: argues over my mom
USA: argues over oil
@@therealmistermemer no it’s definitely politics
@@livispuzzled It's oil politics
Belgium is the only place where there's no government but way too many governments at the same time.
Some have said Belgium isn't really a country, more like a loose union of microstates. It's debatable, but an interesting statement.
@@thunderbird1921 i mean its a Republic so its pretty accurate
even is there is no government, there are still six governments
@@DimT670 its not, it's a monarchy
@@thunderbird1921 idk about that, since the governments really overlap regions and you can't just take a part out without everything collapsing
As a Belgian, I can tell you all that having a government or not having one is exactly the same
Edit: We got a government now. Not a very democratic one but still, it's better than nothing... I guess...
Is that horseshoe theory I sense?
Eeeyyyoooo oeist
only lil' nazbol can stop him now
@@hieronymusjohnson9241 mejou?
Thanks to the 6 other governments for the regions and communities that hold things together while the federal level is stuck.
Oh, the previous government that is still in place but can't take on new projects, only manage the day-to-day stuff so it's not like everything stops
So you missed a pretty important detail; One of the reasons why not having a *federal* government for so long makes so little difference in Belgium, is because Belgium has 6 full-fledged governments, all with equal power to the federal government. Not having a "government" just means we only have 5 governments, and actually has very little impact on us aside from slightly-more-than-usual tax money disappearing down the bureaucratic wormhole.
Because of the success of the nationalist parties in recent years, the federal government has been drained of a lot of power, to the point where right now it's mostly just an empty shell that is responsible for not a whole lot of things (from the top of my head, one of the few things that actually matter that the federal government is still in charge of are pensions, and to an extent healthcare). As such, aside from not being able to pass new federal laws, the lack of this 6th government actually makes very little difference to Belgium and the Belgians.
In case you're curious, these are the 6 governments of Belgium;
- Federal government (the one we don't have right now)
- Flemish government for the Flemish region and Dutch-speaking community (these 2 used to be separate)
- The Walloon government for the Wallonia region
- The French-speaking government for the French-speaking community
- The German-speaking government for the German-speaking community
- The government of the Brussels Capital Region (which is the third semi-autonomous region of Belgium that is its own technically bilingual but actually French-speaking island inside Flemish territory)
I've been following Belgian politics for a while because the stuff that goes on in this country is absolutely insane... but what I don't get is why there's a separate government for Dutch speakers and for Flanders, and for French speakers and Wallonia (well the latter makes sense because Brussels is French, but still.)
Also I would add that Brussels is becoming more bilingual as more Flemings move in, if I remember right, recent surveys say that about 15% of the population speaks Dutch at home.
@@redcoat4348 So actually there isn't a separate government for the Dutch-speaking community and Flanders; they got merged into one Flemish government relatively recently. The Wallonian government(s) have not followed suit, however. Part of the reason for this is that the languages that are spoken in regions don't exactly follow the borders of Flanders and Wallonia. As such, the idea is that a French-speaking government can offer education and culture to French-speaking families living in Flemish territory. The whole thing is obviously nuts, but that's how it is.
As for Brussels; officially, Brussels is bilingual. This, however, is widely understood to be a fairytale told by politicians in an attempt to keep the peace. It, too, is one of the reasons that the Flemish separatist parties have been so successful. I am a Flemish, Dutch-speaking Belgian. I don't go to Brussels often (in fact I left Belgium 5 years ago), but whenever I am in Brussels, I know that Dutch is of no use to me and all communications will be either in my broken attempt at French, or in English.
It's a mess, and it doesn't really work, but Belgium really is a bit of a case of "this doesn't work, but if there's anything we've learnt over the years it's that none of our neighbouring countries can be trusted to rule us, so whatever mess we're in is still a better mess than we'd be in otherwise".
In my personal opinion, there's too many governments in Belgium (no shit, right?), and a big step towards making the running of the country less inefficient (so that we can stop being one of if not the most heavily taxed countries in Europe) would be to get rid of 5 of the 6 governments. However, the obvious catch here is that no politician is ever going to run with this idea, let alone get it through a vote, because they'd be putting themselves out of a job by doing so. I think tensions between Flanders and Wallonia have caused a lot of Belgians to become very short-sighted and lose track of the bigger picture. The separatist movement in Flanders seems to be mostly fuelled by 2 things;
* Wallonia has a high unemployment rate and brings in very little money compared to Flanders, yet because of the system in place in Belgium all money that gets spent needs to be split 50/50 between Flanders and Wallonia. A lot of people are screaming for this to change.
* Flanders is, nowadays, the economic powerhouse. This used to be very different. Not even that long ago, Wallonia was the wealthier part of the country, with Flanders being the poorer part. However, there was also a very big divide with Flemish people all being expected to learn French and be grateful if they were offered a job in Wallonia. The Belgian constitution wasn't even translated into Dutch (a language that the majority of the country speaks!) until ~50 years ago. As such, Wallonia was more wealthy, and Flanders got little attention nor respect. The generation of Flemish that grew up in this relative poverty and inequality now have the power to vote, but also pass on their ideas to their children, and are, to put it mildly, a little bit salty about the situation that Wallonia put them through and are now looking for revenge. This also isn't helped by the fact that to date all Flemish children need to learn French, but the majority of Wallonians do not have to learn Dutch and in fact do not speak it at all. This is also part of what has caused Brussels to become ever more solidified as a French-speaking region.
... Alright, that turned out to be a much longer reply than I was anticipating it to be, but I hope it's at least informative. Just to be clear, I'm pretty neutral about Flanders vs Wallonia. I'm from a border town and emigrated years ago, and personally care very little about fights between regions within Belgium. I think the whole separatist movement is sort of silly, and that (aside from getting rid of a couple of governments) the solution here lies in letting go of inequalities of the past and striving for equality rather than revenge, but as these things go they usually get worse before they tend to get better (if ever).
Seems like a lot of these problems could be fixed just by providing services in either Dutch of French, that would make it easier to keep up the idea of Brussels being a bilingual city instead of people moving in and adapting to French, which only works to piss off Flemish.
I do understand that there are too many governments in Belgium and that this leads to more tax revenue being wasted, though there's probably something to be said about trying to maintain cultural autonomy for each region, so that people can still be educated or interact with the government in their native languages.
The U.K. handles things pretty well in this regard. As such as people say that the regional parliaments are white elephants, they are useful in maintaining local needs, while still being very obviously subservient to the national government. A better example would be India, every state speaks its own language, but is subservient to the national government which operates in Hindi and English. Cultural and linguistic autonomy is maintained very well and taxes aren't much higher due to the fact that there's rather minimal bureaucracy. This is all despite the fact India has *20* official languages. Belgium not being able to adapt with 3 says more about inefficient bureaucracy failing to do the job it was meant to do in decentralizing power so much.
Part of the reason Belgium became independent from the Netherlands was because they were Catholic. They are to some extent unified by their culture. And there's also the fact that they both live very similar lives to each other, though they're separated by language, there are many things they share in common that they don't with France or the Netherlands.
But with only two languages to deal with, it should not be too hard to make sure that the country can be maintained through its diversity, making sure that French and Dutch have equal status throughout the country.
@@RobinJ You make some very good points. One from me: Having lived in Wallonia for 14 years, the schools are obliged to teach a foreign language and everyone has to take it. The problem is the lack of Dutch teachers... I put my children into "immersion" classes in Flemish (note: _not_ Dutch) and that went for eighteen months before they couldn't find teachers any more. Then the children that took Dutch had difficulty passing the exams as the teaching standard was pretty low. The other language available is English, and the general attitude is "Choose between English - the language with international leanings understood almost everywhere? OR Flemish - spoken in a small part of the world and so popular that even the Dutch all speak English? Hmmmm, now let me think."
Time was when French was the language of government and the upper classes, and all major towns spoke French - Ghent, Ypres, Hasselt, Mechelen etc. with the working class in the north using Flemish and the south Walloon. After WW1 when Belgium had four years under the Germans who were not nice about it and preferred the Flemish (they spoke a language that could be sneered at as a debased dialect of German - but German none the less - rather than speaking a debased dialect of French, or even worse real French - the language of the enemy), the ideas of Belgium happening to have two languages but one people were gradually overturned (with lots of help from Woodrow Wilson - POTUS #28 - opening the Pandora's box of popular self-determination) in favour of three languages and political divisions along linguistic lines.
I remember reading a National Geographic issue on Belgium back in the late 1970's which predicted Belgium's demise into separate countries within ten years. Hasn't happened yet...
For anyone interested: a coalition of seven parties has officially reached an agreement today and Belgium is going to have a government soon
*"and whatever the hell Luxembourg is"*
Everyone asks what Luxembourg is, but nobody asks *how* Luxembourg is 😔
Isn't Luxembourg a collection of mines, with some banks, and other Financial institutions?
@@Duncan_Campbell It's actually the capital of the country of Luxembourg as well as the Belgian province that neighbours the country of Luxembourg of which Luxembourg is the capital! confused?
@@wycombewanderer6649 Yes!
Why is Luxembourg?!
Luxemburg is a beautiful rich province of the Benelux
3:40 “adults eating kids meals”
Why does this sound like a personal attack?
It is
Sue the people selling u kid meals. U aren't getting the nutrition and u need them to stop #nokidmealsforadults2020
When I watched it I heard "adult-eating kid meals"... What the hell is wrong with my head?
i ate the kids
Endrio Infiniti Yes officer, this man right here.
Belgium: Goes 621 Days Without a Goverment
*Antartica: "Pathetic"*
Mars: "Hold my moons"
You must say that to our King, the elected government that won the elections were extreme right and the king didn't wanted that !!!
That's what we want you to think.
@@vigilantcosmicpenguin8721 the like was for your username. Tis all carry on meow
With or without a government, I must say that I don't see a difference !!! Hahahahaha
So Belgium... do you have a government?
"Yesn't"
VICHKΛR haha 😂 😝
Y'all heard that said with a proper southern Belgian accent.
(grits and waffles)
Yes we don't
Non peut-être?
[classic Belgian misunderstanding joke]
Yes 6 but no federal gov
Belgium: stays 600 days withouth government
Somalia: "Pathetic"
Northern Ireland:
It's the world record so it ain't that pathetic
Now that you're at it, try South Sudan...
Somalia's had a provisional government since 2012. They don't control most of the territory in the country though, so I guess the memes are pretty accurate lol.
Putin: laughs in 35 years of Putin
Actually many Belgians don't even understand how their government works. We probably have more ministers per capita then any other country in the world, like 9 health ministers for instance. Belgium is a constitutional monarchy in a federal state. So basically the King has the executive power, the chamber of representatives the legislative power and the courts the judicial power. However the linguistic regions have their own government with certain competencies such as education, health care, social stuff, etc. So there is the federal government, the Walloon region government, the Flemish region government, the government of the German speaking part, the French speaking community with it's government and the Dutch speaking community with it's government too. The fact is that politics in Belgium is so decentralized that it can function without a federal government.
Oh honey, you guys have NOTHING on African Governments. Ghana has possessed governments with over +100 ministers.
Actually the Flemish Region and Flemish Community merged to form a single government. It's mainly the south that has problems with efficiency and cutting back on unnecessary institutions.
Bosnia has 14 governments, 14 health care ministers, 14 education ministers etc... In many ways the two countries share similar issues. Also, Bosnia was on the way to be without a government for 400-500 days, something like that. Now one of the two Bosnian regions has been with technical government for more than 24 months. Technical government basically means having a government without having a government so Belgium and Bosnia are hand in hand in that aspect.
So basically Belgium has a government mildly
Hey five out of six isn't bad!
Doctor: i'm sorry,but you have a mild case of government. Thank the lord you were lucky enough to only have it MILD
Im from belgium and we don't even know
Wilmes had promised a confidence vote in the parliament so even that mildly part won't be true in a couple of weeks
@@jannoottenburghs5121 prepare for it to get EXTREMELY mildy
"Philip rules Belgium the same way Mickey Mouse rules Disney World"
The best resume of a constitucional monarchy that I ever heard
Something tells me I might quote this video if I make a video about political systems (of course, while giving him proper credit).
Well the king does not rule belgium he is king of the belgian's not of belgium but the media says belgium and he does not own belgium
@@commando2113 Well, the last time a Belgian king owned a lot of land, it didn't go so well.
@@commando2113 its funny how the only popular king (king of a people) is a king of a people that don't even exist
Private Trash
Yeah, there was something, kinda cruel, like 15-20 million African people killed. That’s more than the Holocaust
As a Belgian myself, I can tell you that we mostly don’t care if there’s a government or not. Sometimes we even make fun of it. For example, when someone says something about the government, we’d say “what government?” because there was none.
Recently, they did finally succeeded in making one, but literally nothing changed. Everything is still the same. They’re calling it the “Vivaldi-coalition” or “Vivaldi-government” because just like Vivaldi’s 4 seasons, it took about 4 seasons to make a government.
We got drones spying on us now...Fucking politics man.If there is one thing I really don’t like about my country it are the idiotic politics.
@@mryesissus3015 We voted them into power.
@@MustardSkaven More like we all seperatly voted on a bunch of different idiots and those idiots banned together to form one massive idiot goverment
Why need a government when you have waffles???
"Belgium hasn't had a government in 621 days"
Me from Northern Ireland who went 1089 days without a government:
Pathetic
Was looking for a comment like thus
So how has belgium got the record???
@@user-ie6jr4bg1w I assume it's because northern ireland is a part of the UK
@@inky_64 Yeah, we still had westminster, so it didn't count
don't tell, but we are trying to break that record
Without Federal government*
We had 6 other governments for the regions and communities that are operating things within the realm of their competences
That latter part always seemed rather obvious to me, but I suppose people from two-party countries need explaining what a demissionary government is.
It seems like the only Belgian is the king. And the only guy Mobutu didn't kill off who helped him launder money.
5 actually, the Flemish community and region have the same government
"had"? What happened to them?
I assume it's kinda similar to a state government?
I’m from belgium and don’t even understand whats going on anymore
You understood it before?
You fool! That's what they are trying to do! They want to make their government so complicated that you and everyone else on this earth are so bored of the politics that you stop listening to it! And then they'll start doing some big no-no stuff and no one will notice because they lost interest do to the complexity of the politics. Get with the program kid, you learn this in Conspiracies 101.
“and whatever the hell luxembourg is”
me who’s family is Luxembourgish:
._.
Frenchies that are not willing to call themselves frenchies
@@panzerofthelake506 their language is closer to German
@@albertolaboria5866 ah Germans who like to eat baguettes
@@panzerofthelake506 funny accent Germans
@@w花b people who are from the greek island of lesbos are lesbian
Lol the “do not try this at home” warning during the hand stack was great.
Anyone: *says some about 621*
A very small amount of people: interesting
yes
The chemical identifier for MSG?
@@AngPur exactly, i have no idea why people laugh at 621
@@jubskin I'm knot sure either
AngPur lmao got me there
HAI: "Canora-vin-ris"
TH-cam demonetization: "Understandable. Have a great day!"
Came here looking for this comment, have an upvote dear stranger!
CANORA-VINRUS*
@@LucaPed94 Thanks!
he already lost it in 0:33
Weird. If a year ago I said, "A virus gets named after a Mexican beer, and when Cinco de Myao falls on Taco Tuesday, no one will go to the Mexican restaurants," I could have gotten thousand to one odds.
one small addon though: there still is a flemish government, a walloon government and a brussels government, so we still have some governments
We have backup governments, and backup governments for those governments. And people laugh at them for how convoluted our system is, fools!
Maybe split once and for all? I mean...
What about brussels?
@@beastrule Perhaps it should be an exclave of Wallonia, as it is mostly French-speaking.
Government lite edition
I remember Spain went without a seated parliament for a year and a half, which saw unprecedented economic growth because the rules didn’t change every few minutes.
I remember one of our politicians saying something along the lines of: "If the people catch on to the fact that Belgium worked so long without a government, we're screwed."
Lol
I think the same thing whenever one of our major parties tries to convince us we should freak out over the prospect of a government shutdown. When things more or less progress as normal, they get concerned that we might actually prefer the government stay shut down, so make it a priority to start it up again.
Belgian here, and I have to say that we are looking to break our own record soon! I also have to add that the way he said Charles Michel was really funny
charls
What is our current record
@@binamertens6782 We are at or near 630 days. Every day it passes we crush our previous record by a day! lol
I'm glad HI didn't talk about our national waffle reserve and plans to take over the planet. Thank god no one has figure about that, yet.
@@binamertens6782 we have already broken it our record was 581 days
@@MrWhiteVzla and mayonnaise
We have a saying in Belgium: If you understand Belgium, it has not been properly explained.
Also: BELGIUM NUMBER 1 GODVERDOEMME !!
Fun extra fact: all the political parties in belgian have an (unwritten*) pact to never form a government with VB (the far-right extremists), further complicating the formation of a government, seeing that absolutely nobody wants to govern with them (except maybe the standard Flemish Nationalists, the NVA. But it's impossible to get a majority for them, seeing that half the seats are flemish and half the seats are walloon)
*: It was a written pact made in the nineties, when "Vlaams Blok" (Flemish Bloc) released a manifesto that was extremely racist and borderline facist. This led to a racism lawsuit towards Vlaams Blok, causing them to "dissolve" into a new party: "Vlaams Belang" (Flemish Interests), with exactly the same members and stances. This also meant the "Cordon Sanitaire" around Vlaams Blok dissolved, but it's still held up in practice.
God I wish more places would do something like that.
@@adambasinger6239 Well most places don't have popular far right party
@@fica1137 Most places don't? I'm not so sure of that...
NVA? Nationale Volksarmee?
@@fica1137 oh you sweet summer child.
Belgium: *Goes 621 days without a government*
Belgians: *"I consider this an absolute win"*
No we dont :D
Tboy
Hey, what’s 621 day’s without a government if we got a “half as interesting” out of it.
Absolutely win if you ask me.
@@hiiamelecktro4985 hell yes
why did i read that in an italian accent
@@El_Presidente_5337 SJSKJSKJSKJSKJSJKSKSJJSK
wait why do i know where that site goes to
Thumbnail: Belgian Flag
All Belgians: I’ve been summoned
Indeed
yes
That's correct
Correct.
Ja inderdaad, da zijn feiten motjen
2:31 Sidenote: some political parties are still national and aren't divided between Flemish and Walloon versions and some other political parties simply don't have a counterpart in the other half of the country (a party that supports Flemish independence would only exist in Flanders for example)
Well if the Walloons get tired of the Flemish then I can see the Flemish Independence party branching out.
Is Flanders and Flemish the same? I asked coz here in India we were taught Flemish but in the video it is Flanders and I was like- ''what is flanders?''
Flanders is the name of the region
Flemish is an adjective ie flemish fries
PTB/PvdA is the only major national party in Belgium, there are also the flemish national (N-VA and VB) and a small french only social liberal party (DeFi)
@@garret1930 Well, from what I know of the situation, Wallonia is quite poor in comparison to Flanders and as such they are probably not going to want to give up the goldmine as it were.
"There's also a few people here that speak German, but much like Belgium we'll pretend it doesn't exist"
Ouch
Edit: 1k likes in 7 hrs damn
it is true tho
@@martijnhansen9122 hey dat ging ik zeggen
But meanwhile they have already an own federal gouvernement haha
Yesterday, I was reminded about the german side of Belgium. I live here, and I completely forgot that was a thing. lol
*sad german noise*
Here’s another shocking fact about Belgium: we don’t eat waffles that much, even very rarely. We actually eat flat pancakes way more!
nah i'm a Belgian and i like waffles more
When I studied at Louvain people ate them a lot
Liar. We eat waffles at least 3 times a day
Last time I ate a waffle was in 2006
Waffles are this weird tourist obsession that everyone just kind of rolled with. I know hardly anyone who regularly eats waffles. Fries and beer, that's where it's at!!!
Tip when saying French words that have accents on the e (maybe other languages too) : the accent overrides *everything.* the è in Wilmès is an "eh" and it will be the same in every other word, so it should be said as "Will mess" which isn't very reassuring for a prime minister.
the only reason she is prime minister is because she was the only french speaking minister who could speak a bit dutch. this sounds fun in a country where 60% speaks dutch, but the reality is, this is the reality.
@@pieterpossenier4191 she speaks better dutch than I (and a lot of people my age) speak french tho
At least when she did mès up, she can says that she fulfilled her promise, more than most politicians do at least
Sooo. Why exactly are you guys one nation?
@@lonestarr1490 belgium is one nation with multiple languages that happen to each have their own half
Malaysia: _Laughs in an unelected backdoor government_
Damn i kinda tired of politician roleplaying as a frog
Things still working, got my govt assistance money, corrupt people are now actually being sent to prison, and covid-19 is being kept under control. I don't really care about elections any more.
Our Government has more drama than all TV3 drama show.
@@kaitoch.2969 more plot twist and betrayal than a indian drama
But the new gov is great unlike PH lol.
Belgium went 621 days without a government because they were too busy on e621.
I was waiting for someone to mention the funny number
My first thought when I saw the title lmfao
621 days, that’s roughly 1 2/3 of a year and 621...nice
621 days for a reason OwO
Captain Heat lol
We in the Netherlands are still a bit bitter that they took that record from us, but they've really run away with it now; we'll never catch up... :p
@@rjfaber1991 At least we've also had a minority government.
There's the comment I was looking for uwu
Him: "Well, mostly, everything is..."
Me: "CHAOTIC!"
Him: "Normal"
Me: "My disappointment is immeasureable, and my day is ruined."
You're speaking of belgium. "Normal" there means chaotic in other countries
i feel like we don't care here in belgium because of the government's shinanigans
1:49 "Oppress the Proletariat"
You got me.
Belgium got rid of their politicians because they just kept “waffling”.
I was going to laugh at that when I suddenly realized I was hungry
People from Northern Ireland: "You gotta pump those numbers. Those are rookie numbers. "
Was looking for this comment
but that is not a National government. Only a sub division. In Belgium case it is.
@@sirBrouwer Yes, but Northern Ireland is extremely autonomus, so it is just as harmful to the citizens of Northern Ireland as the case is in Belgium today
@@daraj02
the joke is Belgium in total is doing pretty well without. It is not really harming them.
@@sirBrouwer It was a big problem in NI tho, legislation that came in in other parts of the UK was three years late arriving in NI, teachers pay rises for instance was delayed by years as the NI assembly needed to approve it but there was none. It also allowed Westminster to strong arm legislation through that they wanted put through in NI undermining our autonomy. e.g when they forced through the abortion and gay marriage bill, While i believe that overall NI would have voted for gay marriage had it come to a referendum i do think that abortion would not have gone through, leading to huge controversies as it not only legalised it but made it one of the most liberal in the world. I'm not going to comment on my personal views on these topics but i think that it was undemocratic for Westminster to do this.
After exploring the furry iceberg, I can never see the number 621 the same again...
My first thought when I saw the video title lmao
what does no 621 has to do with furries?
@@greatestleviathan2827 DON'T. EVER. ASK. THAT. seriously, better off without you knowing it
mmmh those MSG-soaked waffles, or as the Europeans call it: (incredibly censored)
@@greatestleviathan2827 Ever heard of Rule 34? 621, full name E621 is that, except only furry
Oh, and here's the best bit - There's also quota on how many ministers can be french speaking and how many can be dutch speaking to prevent any overrepresentation.
Not to mention that the federal government doesn't really bear that much importance as the local governments of each region - Brussels has its own government, and so does Wallonia, Flanders, and the little German bit around Eupen. They have assembled fairly quickly, therefore regions work as intended.
After all, Belgium might be a monarchy formally, but it's more of a union or a federation by nature.
I kinda want Flanders to break away from Belgium and join the Netherlands. I makes sense to me, but maybe that's because I am dutch
What about people who speak both languages?
Rybread52 like everything in Belgium, it’s complicated.
Even though people might speak both languages, the parties are linked to one of the languages. They might have the same party in the other language, but hat is seen as 2 parties. And they want to balance out how many speak one or the other language. As said, we like to keep things unnecessarily complicated for unknown reasons.
true that.
@@ivoboksem851 ik, als Vlaaming, wil da ook, laat die Wale zich dan maar aansluiten bij Frankrijk en de Duitser bij Duitsland
",which comes with this invisible pet monkey"- Half as Interesting
Lol
"Wilmes has the power to do basic bureaucratic oversight, but without a governing majority she can't pass any new legislation, appoint new officials, handle the budget deficit, or even fund the acquisition of another invisible pet monkey." - Half as Interesting
So random
"Quote from the video" - Channel name
Why can't they use the old invisible pet monkey? It didn't just get up and walk away...
*pokes Belgium with a stick* c'mon you're supposed to become destabilized and do something cool.
LOL
D
I
S
A
P
P
O
I
N
T
E
D
!
!
!
!
!
@@Thenoobestgirl I thought that said 'dismember appointment' for a sec and I was very confused.
Nope. Gotta go to Lebanon for that.
It's impossible to destabilize something that made itself impossible to change
@@lapisleafuli1817 Hasn't Lebanon had like two whole governments resign since that explosion in the capital?
The same problem happened in Israel between 2019 & 2020. After 3 Elections, there was a Unity Government Formed, but it took 3 Elections to fix it.
Did this fix anything?
@@jonlag3867 not quite. The current Prime Minister, in a classic Politician, Is unhappy amd wants a 4th Election he thinks might make him win. But by this point, he is very disliked by the public. +The whole Virus thing right now ain't helping
@@michaelprep1375 I see. Some things never change I guess
@@jonlag3867 He is also in a bit of legal trouble personally - as in there is an active trial against him for corruption.
@@tz8785 That's bad but it is something to have to go to court. In my country corrupted politicians don't even make it to court.
When you're actually Belgian, but you still watch the video because you have no clue how the hell this could have happened either
I mean multiple parties can't reach a coalition while temporary government basically does everything isnt awfully hard to predict
Right and far right parties in Flanders and left and far left parties in Wallonia. There you go, that explains a lot (but not everything).
Laughs in Dutch with a 4 party coalition
When you're Dutch, but you know so little about Belgian politics that you learn about it from a video made by an American who lives in Scotland
@@thibautmercier4526 i find it hard to believe that there is a viable party that gets enough votes thats far left. Are you sure your definitions are in order? You are telling me a party of anarchists is getting enough votes to sway how givernment is selected?
"...beating out the record held by their rival, also Belgium."
"... grant her special emergency powers for three months..."
*I love democracy* ~ Palpatine (aka The Senate)
I hear Darth Vader's theme playing in the background.
"While the Country of Belgium waffles about what to do next"
I see what you did there, and I like what you did there
I was going to make the exact same comment. But since you beat me to it, I'll just like yours.
"There is also a German speaking part but like Belgium we're going to pretend that they don't exist"
As a Belgian i agree, because of covid we were on vacation in our own country last week in de ardennen wich is in the south-east (during the floods so that was fun) and we passed trough a german speaking village and we were like "huh are we already in Germany, I never saw a sign" basically because we forget german speaking belgians exist
Yeah then give us the region Olpen Malmedy back. They speak German because it was a part of imperial Germany till 1919.
>de ardennen
Sound fammiliar... oh yeah germans love driving through there
@@Tobi-ln9xr no, we're keeping it
Israel: *laughs in 3 consecutive snap elections within a short span with no substantial change*
more like cries (at least there is a government now xD)
Well, there's that dude who's kinda sorta defense minister and mighta shoulda be PM one day...
Malaysia: _Laughs in an unelected backdoor government_
😂
I've got friends in both Belgium and Israel. They told me exactly what they think of their national politicians. And for neither country it will be wise to repeat their words on here as I don't want a ban for swearing...
As a belgian, today is the second time i heard we still don't have a governement (the first was when we passed the 1year without governement mark, i've seen a meme about it)
And i still don't care
Fr
Yeah that's says more about you than about belgium...
@@atlas5459 All the other belgians in the comments have been saying that it doesn't make a difference, so...
@@atlas5459 it really doesn't matter to anyone and I care deeply about geoplitics
@@jeffbenton6183 Well I'm belgian too and I say otherwise
The Chad Internet Historian vs the virgin Bendover Productions
621? That number reminds me of something...
owo
Hehe
69*9
OwO
Luxembourg is just an off-shore tax haven without the off-shore part
It’s a landlocked tax haven.
off shore as in not onshore as in it is not on the sea
@@ThePrudentOne communist wordplay back at it again, thank you
is it bad that the "621" number activates a special signal in my brain
Yes
"All right guys, so it turns out that even though Belgium doesn't technically have a government, it still has, like, a government."
Incredible. It happens to be the exact opposite of Brazil!
(Brazilian guy here, galera. Curtam a piada e não se matem nos comentários. Hue!)
Quem me dera, podia não ter o poder judiciário também
5:03 DO NOT DO THIS AT HOME !!!
I thought you where talking about the laser eyes at first. Lol
@@hiiamelecktro4985 lolz i was saying that handshaking NOW may get u coronavirus
A new government was formed in October 2020 and was currently serving in March 2022 for all you future people
HAI: and much like the Belgian government, we'll pretend they don't exist.
German Belgians: *oh wow, look at me, a nothing made out of nothing*
Me: I can relate😢
It's true tho, most Belgians just don't care they exist
@@lord_sheep oh, no, but I can totally relate with not existing
The German-Speaking Community was essentially just apology land from Germany after they lost WWI.
@@christopher_graffam yeah I know
To be fair, german speaking Belgians are probably the most privileged ethnic minority anywhere in the world. Even tho they only make up a very small percentage of the total population and are concentrated in a very small region, they enjoy all the rights the other two communities have.
Last time i was this early belguim had a government
Were you ever this early? HAI was making videos back then.
"r/woooosh"
Last time I was this early this format of joke was still funny.
melangeken last time I was this spring just happened.
@@MaxHumphreysMaxHumphreys r👏\👏i👏h👏a👏v👏e👏r👏e👏d👏d👏i👏t
edit: i put the slash backwards i dont care
Hello Sam! There is a tiny mistake that only a Belgian could spot on the Belgian map displayed on your video. I am from Belgium ;)
The language border was not correctly drawn. It is indeed the horizontal line that splits Belgium in 2 just South of Brussels. Then, in the Flemish territory, as you correctly drewon the map, there is a little piece of Walloon land enclaved in Flemish territory corresponding to the town of Comines-Warneton. The same exists for Flanders and this enclave located in Voeren was missing from the map.
Also, the pronunciation of the 2 prime ministers was not correct. Sophie Wilmès sounds like "Will mess", which is not what she did. You could refer to google translate for Charles Michel.
Whenever you visit Belgium, you will be warmly welcome to visit the country! Take care
"Stupid Flanders" -Homer Simpson
stupid SEXY flanders*
very important distinction.
@Sigmund Falkner they are here to watch another video about bricks
@@tachy635
About e621
As a Walloon, I found this funny
One small mistake I noticed: on the map of the two regions of Belgium, the municipality of Voeren was shown to be part of Wallonia, while it is in fact part of Flanders
Belgium: We went 591 days without a government!
Northern Ireland: *Pathetic.*
Not really the same, Northern Ireland is not a sovereign country.
Northern ireland isn’t a country, it’s part if the UK
@@LittleSparklingStars it is a country in the exact same way that Scotland and Wales and England are countries, I would think of a union but Westminster has makes all the big laws of each country
Sometimes as belgians we laugh at the US for having a bad government while we dont have one.
Belgian politics: so bad the country hasn't had a government for 621 years, yet still better than American politics
@@flp322 Oh Jesus, I didn't know that the government's been trying to sort out a coalition since 1399. I didn't even know democracy existed back then.
@@felixbabuf5726 whoops lmao
I mean... Not having a government is arguably better than a bad government.
The only instance when nothing is better than something
Belgium: We have not had a govt for 621 days
Northern Ireland: Hold my beer!
"Belgium goes 621 days without government"
*People in the comments saying their country went longer than that.
Me: Amateurs. I'm a foreigner living in Kuwait which doesn't even have a government.
Northern Ireland: “Hold my beer”
NI still has the UK government though.
@@user-eu6sj2gj1t Like they care about us one bit
@@user-eu6sj2gj1t The UK government essentially acted as a caretaker Government when Stormont collapsed, there wasn't really any new legislation passed apart from the legalisation of abortion and same-sex marriage
Its the crazy thing lol many are adamant in saying how evil England is for holding onto NI. Meanwhile in England "can you guys just vote to join the Republic of Ireland already...
NI protestant remainers: NO!!!
Just coming here to make sure someone had said this orrrr:
621 days? Laughs in Northern Irish.
As a Belgian I can say that Belgium with or without government is exactly the same
As a random dude in the comment section i can tell you that you stole this comment
@@robezy0 I didn't steal it👀
@@JhowieNitnek There's exactly the same comment posted like 5 mins before yours
@@robezy0 I didn't see that one oops
Belgium: is broken
Me: That’s my home
Technically we still have 5 goverments, 1 flemish, 1 wallonisch, 1 for the german speaking community 1 for brussels one for the french and german speaking and only the federal goverment is what is so difficult to form because of what he said
But none of those are the 'Belgian Government', which is what the video is about. I'm sure all the Belgian cities have a mayor and city council as well, but they can't pass laws for the whole country so they're irrelevant.
@@michaelheliotis5279 trust me you dont want to go down that rabit hole. It is extremely complicated here.
@@STRAlGHTxEDGE yeah it's hellish aswell
@@michaelheliotis5279 Nah, the regional parliaments most definitely can pass laws, but only if they're within their area. (Like how states in the US can pass laws that only apply for their state). www.flemishparliament.eu/about-the-flemish-parliament/what-are-the-main-functions-the-flemish-parliament
That being said, the whole federal government formation has become quite the circus. I'm pretty sure that if Covid didn't happen we would have had another election by now.
oh my god just have palestine annex you
as someone from belgium, I knew of the previous time without a goverment, but that we are currently in one again is news to me
this whole emergency power is a bit familiar. lets just hope she gives them up by the end of the clone wars.
“ If there were no laws, you could drive as fast as you can and pay no taxes”
Just live in whatever the hell Luxembourg is and go to Germany
I dont understand
@@saadsheraz3830 Luxembourg is a tax heaven used by super rich people and corporations(SUPER low tax rates etc) and Germany has no speed limits on Autobahn(german form of highways/motorways)
Belgians already drive as fast as they desire and pay no taxes. We are notorious for finding loopholes not to pay taxes.
R u tired of ur country's government
South korea: YES.
Wait, really?
@@jeffbenton6183 yeah
@@jeffbenton6183 im from south korea btw
Do South Koreans give a shit about govt? I don't think so.
5:41 “While the country of Belgium waffles on what to do next” 😂😂😂💩
Hier in België zijn we soms zelfs beter af zonder overheid dan eigenlijk met, dat maakt het minder ingewikkeld
So in Israel we were in between governments for more than a year. From December 2018 until may 2020
3 elections in less then 365 days
It’s actually like this in most other European countries as well it’s just that other European countries have a smaller number of parties which means the time without the government is way shorter going as short as minutes.
0:34 “Weed friendly the Netherlands...”
Well yes but actually no.
Tell me more, please
Isnt HAI talking about dutch weed policies focusing on rehab
@@jeffbenton6183 Well we have a tolerance policy in the Netherlands where weed is technically illegal but it's tolerated to be sold and possessed in small amounts. But the production still is very much illegal. So you have the weird situation where the 'legal' weed shops have to buy the drugs from criminals. It just doesn't make any sense. How it's done in the US in certain states like Colorado where everything from production to consumption is fully legal is way better. But try to change anything here and the right wing parties will block everything.
Visit Amsterdam ;)
@@maurotaffijn6147 Dude im literally dutch.
Belgium: *goes 621 days without a government*
Furries: oooo funni number
As someone who was in Belgium on a School Trip during their time without a Government, we didn't notice a thing.
Coincidentally I was there with my politics and economics class, visiting Brussels, but we weren't informed that Belgium literally had no government while we were there.
We didn't notice a thing in society that said "Hey we have no leadership right now".
After experiencing a similar situation here in Germany after our elections, given we've only had no government for a few weeks and, I think the old government was still kinda doing things while the coalition was formed, we also didn't notice a thing. Daily life didn't change besides the fact that "Oh what do u think will happen with the government?" was a question often encountered.
That number has significance to a certain group of people...
Don't reveal it if you know.
I live in Belgium and I am getting this in my recommended because the title contains Belgium
0:22 there is a model of a plane on the shelf
"adults eating kid's meals"
I could never conceive of such horrors
I have nothing to comment it’s been 10 seconds
so do i
Sick
How about now?
First?
Yeah I guess
Malaysia: Voted for one government, eventually another government took over...smh
5:11 I love that minority governments are "sort of a government but also sort of isn't". Meanwhile, here in Denmark, we usually only have minority governments. The last time we had a majority government was for a few years in the 1990s and before that in the 1970s. Our current government only controls 48 out of 179 seats in parliament. No single political party has had an absolute majority in parliament for at least 100 years. I absolutely recommend it.
I'm increasingly starting to think that absolute majorities are the death of representative democracy. That said, the way Denmark makes minority governments work is very interesting; just shows that you can make almost anything functional as long as all parties are willing to be pragmatic about cooperation.
@@rjfaber1991 In the Netherlands we have a 4 party coalition majority government, which seems to have less issues than our previous 2 coalitions. And those consisted out of 2 and 3 parties respectively.
I'm a huge fan of minority governments. It does force cooperation and comprises. A major problem, as I see it, is the First-past-the-post voting system. It often leads to two party systems, which are just terrible for a representative democracy. Having many parties in parliament undoubtedly lets more voters feel represented. Party-list proportional representation is the way to go instead.
If it leads to the government doing less stuff,then i'm totally on board
@@kaparg No, it leads to more effective government. Like actually getting stuff done for the benefit of the people.
So we've all been to e621, got it, thanks comments section
For those of you who don’t know, Belgium got a government again after 652 days.
Always find it funny how everyone I know hates the French because we as flemish people are forced to learn French at school.
We don’t like the The Walloons as well but prefer them over the French because the number “70” and “90” are easier in Walloons French.
we also dont like the netherlands
@@getducked Or the Germans.
"And whatever the hell Luxembourg is"
The people living there's: 'I feel my heart crack'
I remembered the Corona pandemic very well.
The one time we had a female prime minister, we weren't allowed to go to the pubs anymore....
I remember leading about this when I was in 10th class (India, CBSE Board). This was the first chapter in Democratic Politics.