Nationalism and COVID in Belgium: A Surprisingly United Response in a Divided Federal Country

Belgium is considered as a very divided multinational and federal state, with conflicts between representatives of its two main language communities regularly threatening its sheer existence. Moreover, at the outbreak of the COVID 19-crisis, Belgium was in the middle of a political crisis: ten months of failed attempts to form a new federal government left a minority caretaker government to deal with the crisis. When the second wave arrived, a new federal government was formed but its composition was strongly different than the Flemish government, which was lead by the Flemish-nationalist N-VA... Mehr ...