Word: wallonia
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...agreement between Belgium's two main regions, reigniting fears that the country could split along linguistic lines. Leterme--who took office in March, ending nine months without a permanent government--had wanted to grant more autonomy to the majority northern, Dutch-speaking Flanders and the minority southern, French-speaking Wallonia. With King Albert II refusing to accept the resignation, Leterme remains in office...
...after just four months in the job, Leterme has resigned after failing to meet his own deadline for tying up a package of institutional reforms aimed at giving more autonomy to Belgium's increasingly estranged constituent provinces, French-speaking Wallonia and Dutch-speaking Flanders. King Albert II has yet to accept Leterme's resignation, so he remains a caretaker prime minister...
...Flanders and Wallonia often seem to have entirely separate economies and cultures, and rarely have much interaction. Flanders, home to 6.5 million, is by far the country's economic dynamo, with a GDP per head of 124% of the EU average compared with just 90% for the 3.5 million in Wallonia...
...around 60% of Belgium's 10.5 million citizens, and the French speakers. But the stalemate since the June 10 elections appear to have frayed ties even more, with the Flemish in particular questioning why they should be subsidizing the French speakers, based mainly in the poorer, southern region of Wallonia. The bad blood even extended to the Miss Belgium contest in Antwerp last weekend: the eventual winner, Alizée Poulicek, is of Czech origin, but despite speaking French and English, her failure to master Dutch earned her boos from the local crowd...
...common economy, territory, culture and language are typical features of a nation, it's easy to see where Belgium falls short. For more than a century after the country's birth in 1830, French-speaking Wallonia - the southern part of the country with roughly a third of the population - was in an industrial whirl, thanks to its success in mining and steelmaking. Flanders was considered a backwater; it wasn't until 1930 that Flemish students could study in their own language at a Belgian university. Now, with the decline of heavy industry, Wallonia is in a slump while Flanders...