BELGIUM has been without a government since elections were held as long ago as June 10, and it looks like it will be without one for the indefinite future. Lucky little Belgium, you might think, to obtain a respite from the flagrant scandals of corruption washing through its ruling circles these many years.
More than just the local issue of a small country, here is a portent of the European future. Belgium is a microcosm of-actually the model for-the European Union, and its capital, Brussels, is the European capital as well. Committees of politicians and their advisers have been busy over many years playing around with the fates of European peoples and countries, imposing the new identity of Europe as they see fit. Ethnicity and self-determination time and again prove strong enough to bring about the collapse of theoretical unitary projects. These are the very forces paralyzing Belgium today, pulling the country apart, and they are gathering one day to do the same on the much larger scale of the EU.
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