Ixelles? Elsene?
When I lived in Belgium the Communist Party was the last political formation that existed as a national party. All the rest had partitioned into parties of Flanders and parties of Wallonia, leaving the militants in the communes of Bruxelles/Brussel, of which Ixelles/Elsene is one, with few choices -- the Flanders identified party, the Wallonia identified party, the Communist party, or ... wait for it ... the Saxe-Coburg-Gotha family.
Its been 100+ days since Guy Verhofstadt presented his resignation as Prime Minister to Albert II, after the left got clobbered in the last election, leaving ... so far, no group of parties able to agree to form a government.
In the label-space of social identies, "belge", "bruxellois", "wallon", "flamand", I was only comfortable with the first and second. Work days I traversed Flanders to work. Weekends I traversed Flanders and Wallonia to visit family or tourism. Both were less familiar than Bruxelles/Brussel, where I could find milk and olives any Sunday at a Moroccan grocer.
Its not just Flanders vs Wallonia, but Bruxelles/Brussel and where do the Germanophone communes go? Back to pre-1918 Germany? What about the Capital of Europe? Not the UK. Not Germany. Not Italy. Not Spain. ... Where does SHAFE go?
Its a mess, but Belgatude is my personal preference.
