Belgian PM: “Breakup of the Netherlands is the greatest disaster that has ever befallen us”

https://www.ewmagazine.nl/blog/2025/09/lees-hier-de-hj-schoo-lezing-van-bart-de-wever-1498765/

by sasnl

35 comments

  2. Of course. The separation from the Netherland is the first step towards him becoming prime minister, so I think we could agree with him on that.

  3. Translation:

    Ladies and gentlemen,

    Good evening!

    How wonderful it is to be in the Netherlands.

    How wonderful it is to be here with you.

    Today, you have made the effort to come and listen to a Belgian Prime Minister.

    You could have stayed at home in front of the television, but you chose to be here.

    I don’t know if that was the wise choice. You will be the judge of that later.

    When EW – I am no longer allowed to say Elsevier – invited me to give the H.J. Schoo lecture, I did not hesitate for a moment.

    After all, I noticed that I am giving the seventeenth lecture at this illustrious gathering.

    There are no coincidences. This can only be an irresistible nod to the Seventeen Provinces – the exciting and turbulent years in which the identity and unity of our regions were gently carved in marble. In fact, the pioneer of this, Philip the Good, is the father of our fatherlands, and not William of Orange.

    When I was recently in The Hague for the NATO summit and, during a radio interview, I was asked about my feelings of melancholy regarding the separation of the Netherlands, I received, as usual in my own country, some sour reactions, especially from Walloon socialists.

    In their eyes, it is “scandalous” or even “completely crazy” to say that it is and remains my very personal opinion that the break-up of the Netherlands is the greatest disaster that has ever befallen us.

    Perhaps they should consult Edward Anseele, the socialist leader who helped found the Belgian Workers’ Party.

    Anseele considered the Belgian Revolution to be a “useless revolution of priests and citizens” and a “shameful crime” which – and I quote – “created a border on the map, a major obstacle to the fraternisation of two children of the same tribe”.

    My predecessor as mayor of Antwerp and briefly prime minister, Camille Huysmans, also a socialist, called the Revolution “une faute [qui] a détruit un État magnifique” (a mistake [that] destroyed a magnificent state).

    I was also criticised for quoting the beautiful verses of Antwerp poet Theodoor van Ryswyck:

    *Here, and on the other side,*

    *There and here is the Netherlands.*

    Van Ryswyck suffered from syphilis, a disease that affected his brain. The poor man was driven mad and died in a psychiatric institution. It is a fate I hope to avoid – I do not have syphilis, but I do have a high-risk job in Brussels’ Wetstraat. (For my mental health, I mean, not for syphilis.)

    In any case, my love for the Netherlands is no secret – I am also married to a Dutch woman – so I cannot simply hide it.

    However, closer cooperation between the historic Netherlands – now known as the Benelux – is not a romantic dream or nostalgic notion for me, but a political objective that is essential for our future.

    The desire for close cooperation and integration with the Netherlands is, in fact, explicitly and concretely enshrined in Flanders’ latest coalition agreements:

    To work together to protect the prosperity of our Low Countries by joining forces in the areas of culture, education and the economy.

    To work together to increase our power and influence within Europe.

    And to work together to use this power and influence to strengthen the forces of peace and freedom in the world.

  6. Even my Flemish family is offended by this. He tries so hard to force a division on our country it disgusts me

  7. Yeah but they’d have to let the sea back for authenticity.

  10. Is this an invitation to liberate the Belgians from themselves?

  11. I’m guessing, Flemish nationalist who doesn’t like having to share a country with Walloons

  12. I don’t get the context.

    Is he a Belgian advocating for the separation of Flanders from Belgium, and then it joining Netherlands?

    Or something else?

  13. I feel a special military operation incoming by the beginning of next year!

  15. Oh Bart it would be so nice it brings tears to my eyes. And as a thank you the capital should be Antwerp, or even Liege to get buy-in from everyone. 

  16. After reading a lot of comments on De Wever’s statements on the unification of the original Netherlands, I wonder if people know that those original Netherlands / Low Lands included also Namur, Hainaut, la Flandre Française…. So despite the fact that Mr De Wever is indeed a Flemish nationalist, his views on the original/unified Netherlands include what is currently known as Wallonia. He makes the explicit connection with the BeNeLux (a correct connection), meaning that he does not want to split Belgium here, no, he wants to unify what was originally one country. In the late medieval times under the Burgundians, and then between 1815-1830 under Willem I.

    Each time, the separation of the South and the North made everyone poorer and made the countries less influential.

    So – let’s go for a unified Europe, and let the BeNeLux give the proper example.

  17. As a Dutch person, I doubt that it would be in flemish people’s interest to become part of the Netherlands. It would mean they would be the junior partner and I dont see that going well. I also feel that despite the shared language we are culturally relatively different.

  19. He should step down as premier and move to the netherlands ,he can try his luck with a centre right party there.

  20. We will accept Belgium into our state but only if they call themselves the nether-netherlands

  21. Everyone seem to want to dial back the clock to the great empires of old.

    It wasn’t that great back then.

  23. even I ever see a pro-russian westerner talking about how ukrainians and russians are basically the same nation, I’m just going to show them this comment section

  24. this isn’t new right?, the mayor of Antwerp has said similar things.

  26. A lot of misconceptions in these comments. The Belgian PM is not advocating the secession of Flanders into the Netherlands at all. He is calling for an “intimate union” between the Netherlands, Belgium and Luxembourg.

  27. I welcome our friendly Belgian neighbours wholeheartedly. 

  29. Isn’t Belgium the one that would be likelier to eventually break up rather than Nederland?

  30. Can he not embarrass my country for 5 minutes….. This is really not funny anymore….. He’s the prime minister and is joking about tearing our country apart…..

  31. i can think of 10 things worse than the breakup of the netherlands off the top of my head

  33. Ethnic tensions are back in Western Europe. A true sign of the cultural and economic decline of our times.

  34. So much that is being left out of this speech.

    The fact that capital is leaking out of the EU markets through global investments firms that quickly monopolize every industry they can lay their hands on, creating greater inequality.

    It is also bringing with it a deepening political deference to ‘business’. This speech is shot through with that. These pleads for deregulation do not happen on its own.

    Climate change. It is not ‘green panic’. The lower countries ignore that to their own peril.

Comments are closed.