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[Cathar]

Our minister of immigration, who is from the nationalist separatist flemish party invited him as a PR coup.

lol those does exist ? Nationalist separatist flemish? What does that leaves you with? The Empire of Eastern Belgium, captiale city Herstappe, population 80, no immigrant allowed ?
I like people who think big yet have reasonable expectations :') Hell by inviting Puidgemont and five other dudes, you're adding a substential population growth, careful with uncontrolled immigration there.

At least there's not a lot of people to convince.

[Reelya]

How about Cornish nationalism while we're at it. And the people who want a Yorkshire parliament are good too.

[smjjames]

It's a joke outside of Belgium, yeah, but in Belgium, the whole Flanders and Walloon stuff is pretty serious thing. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Belgium#Provinces

Note that Brussels is almost, ALMOST, right smack in the middle of the division line between the Flanders and Walloonian regions.  Dunno if any suburbs go past that line.

[Reelya]

So ... the Brussels Wall gets built? Get your passport stamped to pass through the Waffle Curtain.

[smjjames]

Or maybe make Brussels into a city state with autonomy?

[Cathar]

I love that so much. This is why we have a full repertoire of belgian jokes in french culture.
Never change belgium, never change :'D

[Sheb]

I had seen that actually. Thought it was a little odd that Belgium would offer asylum since Brussels (in Belgium!) is the seat of the EU and the EU wants nothing to do with the Catalan crisis.

I also saw somewhere that a Belgian MP (I think it was Belgian) was doing some resolution to allow separatists of EU countries to stay in the EU, or something like that. Seemed like a preemptive move in case Belgium split into two.

I'll just copy paste something my dad wrote on FB, because it sums up the situation a bit.

Why did Catalan separatist Puidgemont chose Belgium for his exile?

Theo Franken, a Belgian minister, "invited" Puidgemont. Franken is Secretary for asylum and migration and is from the flemish separatist N-VA party. Within that party, he is a popular man, who has become one of Belgium's most popular politicians.

He has built his popularity on hard right populism. This includes frank islamophobia and racism, repeated disregard of both the ECHR and belgian courts for his treatment of refugees, and attendance at commemorations of Flemish Nazi collaborators. He looks the part, too: he's still got the shaven skull he first sported as a young skinhead.

The N-VA is the main party in Belgium's federal government and has developed a taste for it. This puts it in a quandary, since its origins are nationalist separatists. For many of its supporters, it has sold its soul for power (Jan Jambon, the N-VA interior minister, ruled out a flemish independence referendum a couple of weeks ago, in part because he'd probably loose it). So the move with Puidgemont is a master stroke: it's red meat to the base, weakens the already weak federalists in the government, and reminds the youthful prime minister (the hapless francophone Charles Michel of the French-speaking liberal right federalist MR party), who's boss.

So it's not even the Belgian government (who officially hasn't said a thing), but a minister once more acting on his own, blindsiding the PM for political gain.

[Cathar]

snip

...Jan Jambon? Seriously? That's his real name? :'D Tell me he's fat and I'm losing it
This has to be parody. I totally imagine that as a scenario for a satire.
A farmer called Jan Jambon declares the village of eastern herstappe an independant empire. THenhis cattle spend their time arguing about if black sheeps are really citizen sheeps, can't agree and split into two smaller countries

[Culise]

So ... the Brussels Wall gets built? Get your passport stamped to pass through the Waffle Curtain.

Or they just fight a brutal civil war that ends in one side or the other getting ethnically cleansed out of the city.  Tradition, you know. 

But yes, the Flemish are one of the few groups within the EU that are both sympathetic to Catalonia (being a separatist party themselves) and in a position to affect government policy due to strong voter returns.  Hence, Belgium ended up being one of the only two European countries that didn't completely dismiss Catalan independence out of hand; the ruling Walloon party (Reformist Movement/MR) only rules because their coalition at present include three Flemish parties, including the N-VA that just apparently blindsided the MR, and can't afford the risk that Catalan independence will break the fragile coalition. 

[smjjames]

@cathar: It's a Dutch name.... I'm sure French has names that sound silly to others.

Anyhow, bbc article http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-41819940 He's said that he'd accept the results of the snap election, but wonders if the government would abide by the results since chances are high that it'll end up with a similar composition. The Spanish government apparently said that he could take part in the fresh polls, I think. Also, he said that he'll return to Spain if the government gives him some guarantees.

[Cathar]

@cathar: It's a Dutch name.... I'm sure French has names that sound silly to others.

Jambon means Ham. Calling someone a jambon means he needs to lose weight.
"Prendre quelqu'un pour un jambon" is an idiom to say "to take someone for an idiot".

[smjjames]

Oh I get it now.

[Reelya]

By George, he's got it! The rain in Spain falls mainly on Catalan.

[smjjames]

I don't know French or Dutch, not sure why you seem to be semi-mocking me for missing the joke initially

[ChairmanPoo]

...actually Catalonia is pretty dry and warm, hence it's popularity as a tourist destination. The rain in Spain falls mainly in the northern coast, from Galicia to the Basque Country