Flemish Secession hoax

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Geoffroy Coomans de Brachène [fr] holding the street sign Rue des contribuables/Belastingsbetalers straat (taxpayers' street) in Brussels

Tout ça (ne nous rendra pas la Belgique) or Bye Bye Belgium, also called "The Flemish Secession Hoax," was a

Belgian secession from the Netherlands
some 175 years earlier.

Interviews with prominent Belgian politicians (some of whom had been informed about the hoax) as well as staged footage of the evacuation of the royal family as well as cheering crowds holding the Flag of Flanders were included so as to add credence to the news report.

The broadcast of the report led to widespread alarm and consternation in French-speaking Belgium. A hotline set up by the station was swamped by 2,600 calls, whilst RTBF's website crashed. Thirty minutes into the broadcast, on demand of the media minister of the French-speaking community in Belgium, Fadila Laanan [fr], an on-screen message identified it as fiction.

The hoax was the creation of the journalist

a split of Belgium. In the years coming to the hoax there was rising Flemish separatism and the Vlaams Belang party received strong support in the regional elections.[1]

Prominent Belgian politicians, including

Prime Minister of Luxembourg, who said, "This is not the kind of issue you play around with."[2]

See also

  • Partition of Belgium

References

  1. ^ "Viewers fooled by 'Belgium split'". 14 December 2006 – via news.bbc.co.uk.
  2. ^ "Belgian viewers fall for TV hoax announcing breakaway state". Archived from the original on 12 March 2007.

External links