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Synopsis

Is Belgium on the brink of break-up? Are the latest developments just more of the same or is the country slowly disappearing? The big gains made by the NVA (the Flemish Nationalist Alliance) in the June 2010 federal elections have turned it into Belgium's biggest party. The rising fortunes of this Flemish separatist movement are putting Belgium's future as a nation on the table.

The report explains the growing rift between Flemings and Walloons in a country in which there is no common tongue, and where media and political parties are split on language lines.

Can a country really work when it is split down the middle along language lines and Flemings and Walloons know little (and care less) of what goes on in the other camp? How can politicians agree when they only court their own regional voters but when elected, then have to govern the whole country? Is wealthy Flanders tired of bailing out poor Wallonia? Are French speakers "colonizing" Flemish towns and villages around Brussels?

The report illustrates these everyday problems and interviews politicians from each side of the divide. The documentary begins in Charleroi, the old mining heart of Wallonia and now in deep crisis. It then looks at the areas on the outskirts of Brussels and the battle over language. The journey finishes in bustling, self-assured Antwerp, the pride of Flanders and Europe's second biggest port.