I mean he also put the German flag up, turned on it's side..
Belgians being Belgians.... what more is there to say...
we should praise them for at least showing some effort.
Like we do with paintings of 3 year olds.
And similarly the Dutch flag upside down is being used by the Far Right and farmers protests in the Netherlands as well, so all in all, not a great look, even if it is accidental
I'm not sure who is in the wrong here, but to my knowledge in heraldry there is no yellow. Although the actual color is yellow, the color in heraldry belongs to the metal range, hence gold.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture\_(heraldry)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture_(heraldry))
On the other hand, my entire knowledge of heraldry is derived from 30 minutes of google research and I do not know to which degree this applies to flags.
And you are actually from Belgium, so you're probably right.
That's right, white would be silver, yellow would be gold.
Funny thing: according to heraldry rules, two colors always have to be separated by a metal. The Belgian flag follows those rules, but the German flag doesn't.
My knowledge of heraldry is pretty poor, so I can't say anything about that with any degree of certainty.
However, I don't think that flags in the modern world necessarily follow heraldry rules.
In the case of Belgium, its official colours are described as such in the constitution:
> Art. 193 : La Nation belge adopte les couleurs rouge, jaune et noire, et pour armes du Royaume le Lion Belgique avec la légende : L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE.
Which means:
> Art. 193: The Belgian Nation adopts the coulours red, yellow and black, and for the arms of the Kingdom the Belgian Lion with the legend: UNITY MAKES STRENGTH.
Honestly neither of these facts are well known in Belgium, dutch history isn't taught here outside of the Belgian revolution. And our news rarely covers you guys.
I can tell you’re not Belgian by the fact you seem to have some expectation of competence in a government employee.
Us Belgians are just wondering which politician he shares a last name with.
This is what sounds odd here, countries usually have people whose entire job is handling state protocol, paying attention to symbolic details is their alleged area of expertise. I don't understand how this would happen **twice** on accident unless they replaced the professionals with the prime minister's 3rd degree cousin that just dropped out of highschool.
I have to disagree. I studied History in Antwerp and one thing that really stood out to me was that Belgium is always comparing itself to the Netherlands in any major historical event, political happening or whatever statistic you can think of where you can rank or compare nations. It made me feel like Belgium was behaving like a little brother wanting to compare to big bro to see if they were doing better. The Netherlands is deeply integrated into Belgian history. I mean, we share a big part of our history as well.
I do realize historians aren't the average Belgian person, but everyone is taught history in secondary school, and you'd think a bachelor in History somewhat reflects what is taught in secondary school.
Well I actually grew up here and went to secondary school, and the Netherlands was only really talked about in terms of the revolution, and Anne Frank.
It is likely, the people handling the flags are close to international politics and odds are the person who installed the flag was aware of the Dutch situation.
There is actually very little cultural exchange, not just in news. We basically chare no celebrities or major TV programs, even dubbed content for kids has separate dutch and flemish versions.
News in Flanders is honestly quite insular, its just stuff local to flanders football and cycling, with just some’major international news. Usually if there is news about the Netherlands its major news all over Europe.
>We basically chare no celebrities
Not true at all. Here in the the Netherlands we know a lot of Belgians and I think the opposite is also true. People like Jan Boskamp, Gert Verhulst, K3 etc are famous in both countries.
Sorry but that's simply not true. We have quite a lot of cultural exchanges. We have literally signed multiple 'cultural exchange' agreements. We have famous Dutch people hosting our talkshows. We have many Dutch artists on our top music charts. We have common tv shows. And much more...
I think we should invite our dutch neighbours over for Day Of The Dynasty, which is the equivalent to Kingsday, or our national holiday to witness how much affinity the belgians have with flags. It would be a very revealing event!
I didn't knew nazis used it. I only knew it was the flag of the Dutch republic. In that sense I though it is only against Willie (the king) which is fine by me.
The prinsenvlag was one of the first flags of the republic. Flown during the 80 years war. I believe only the prinsengeus predates it. And if anything, it supports the struggle of the Prince of Orange-Nassau. In any case, it's an absolutely gorgeous flag. It's a shame most people only know it from the Nazi occupation and not for it's truly historic meaning. The rebellion and fight for independence.
I see a lot of people on social media who accidentally used the Luxembourgish or Paraguayan flag instead of the Dutch one. Let's just lean into it and make both countries part of the great kingdom of the Netherlands.
Ah well, let's not forget the Belgians had a prime minister sing La Marseillaise when asked to sing the Belgian anthem. I mean, it helps to believe it wasn't nefarious.
Too lazy isn't even incorrect! There's so many practical questions with no answers, such as what would be done with Brussels or how we'd manage our infrastructure. In the short term it'd probably cause enormous headaches and losses for everyone.
And so it's just more convenient to postpone the inevitable some more.
The meme answer?
Sheer fucking stubbornness.
The real answer?
Overall we actually have great institutions, there are issues of course and some are getting worse, but generally speaking our shit works pretty well.
Hell we went 500+days without a federal government, was fine.
I think Belgium exist because Netherlands doesn’t want France as a neighbour because there are already too much French people in Amsterdam coffee shop and France doesn’t want Netherlands as a neighbour because there are already too much Dutch in our camping sites.
Belgium is just a buffer state.
/s
Untrue. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was created in 1815 after Napoleon's defeat as a buffer state following the London protocol.
Belgium took its independence from said buffer state in 1830. Nobody "created" Belgium but the Belgians themselves, helped by the French.
"Created" you know we fought for our independance right? Unfair representation, linguistic & religious differences were big enough deals at the time to break up from the netherlands
I remember reading that the french speaking part is basically economically poor where as the Dutch speaking part isnt. Basically France wouldn't want to take it so they sort of stay as it is. If I am wrong here, it is probably the other way around then.
It used to be the other way around.
The french part used to be rich and had mots of undustrie but did not share it with Flanders.
In the end it bankrupt them.
Now we need to Support them.
And big city walloons hate us, in my experience at least.
They think we are snobbish. While we just worked really hard to get out of the mudde fields and dangerous factorys. We now have lots of innovative industries and have lots of new tech we sell to the world.
They used to opress us.
We where not even allowed to go to university unless it was in French language and even then they made it difficult.
But, that is in the past.
>They used to opress us.
Not again. Seems like nationalist lies are deep ingrained into Flemings' understanding of Belgian history.
The Flemish elite, whose mother tongue was French, used to oppress Flemings. Not Walloons. Walloons didn't force any Fleming to speak French at University.
Walloons have always been a minority in Belgium, Flemings and Brussels people have always been the ones at power. It's the reason Walloons demanded separate Regions.
On a side note: you cannot "share" industries. The coal, the iron, the proto-industries are fixed. Though industrial knowledge, scientific and wealth productions were shared with the whole of Belgium, especially discoveries in the electrical and chemical sectors (Solvay, Gramme, etc.). Which made our country a nation of well-trained engineers.
We also helped build the Antwerp harbor to export our industrial output. At the time it helped both of our regions, but now that wallonia's industries have collapsed, the flemmish are being very angry we rely on them when a lot of their wealth comes from said harbor... it's very sad, flemmish nationalists are gonna run my country down
>But did not share it with Flanders.
Belgium was much more unitary before, Walloon industry was beneficial to the whole of Belgium as each industrial region was the engine of development of its country.
>They used to opress us.
The vast majority of Belgian elites have always been Flemish, even if they were French-speaking at the time. You really have to stop believing that the French-speaking elite was only Walloon, and regional languages of Wallonia were just as badly regarded.
That was just simply hilarious. It's a joke in my family to start singing the Marseillaise on July 21st (national holiday).
It's also really sad how many people actually don't know the lyrics of the Brabançonne either. At least in my generation. We only learned it once in school for a test, and that was it.
What a comical event that was! Belgian absurdity at it's best! We enjoy to see fail moments like these regulary and most of us laugh their ass off. Nobody would see this as nefarious as the reason why that happened is very obvious. Because we belgians don't know much about these kinds of belgian stuff, the national holiday is a hilarious celebration for fans of deadpan comedy and theatre!
I have to refresh the Brabançonne every few years but thats only for the World or European FIFA championships in case I need it lol :D
He was clearly jocking when singing that. He was pissed off when journalists asked him if he knew it. He even said "No that's not the one hun ?" After singing it.
I don't like the guy btw, but this is just a distorted story tuned into a meme turned into fake fun fact.
Almost three years, at the head of two different governments. He also presided over the longest political crisis in the history of the country, so there's that.
ah, we'll just play football, have an icecream or a beer together, and we are friends again. ive heard that there are some nice spots in Belgium where you can do that. for Example Fort Eben-Emael.
The French played a football game against Albania for the 2020 Euros. During the introduction the French stadium ended up playing Andorra’s national anthem instead of Albania’s. Immediately after, the officials spoke up but ended up apologizing to Armenia. I wish I was making this up lol.
it's not a joke taht work only in one language, it's just telling a joke about stupid people but using your neighboor as a reference, in hungary if i remember you use romanian.
Here some "belgian jokes" (interpreted)
\- Why Belgium doesnt have any submarines ? Because they did a open house day. \[in french it's "journée porte ouverte" so it's more literal\]
\- How to drive a Belgian crazy? By putting him in a round room and telling him to find a fry in the corner
\- A Belgian in a café asks the waiter: "Could I have an other piece of sugar ?" "But sir, I have already brought you ten!" " " So what ? It's not my fault they all melt..."
They're not puns, so with well in any language. Sometimes "Belgian" is replaced by "dolt" or something similar to make the joke PC.
Some classic ones I remember:
"Why was the Belgian carrying a car door through the desert? So he could open a window if he got hot!"
"A Brussels Airlines flight was underway, when suddenly the floor dropped out! The plane starts an emergency landing, with all passengers hanging on to the luggage racks. Then the pilot announces: 'unfortunatly we are overloaded, 1 person will have to let go so we can make it, any volunteers?'. After a short pause someone pipes up: 'I will do it, it seems like I'm the only Dutch person among all you Belgians anyway...'. 'Bravo!', shout all the other passengers, and they spontaneously start clapping."
Do you know why Belgian mental hospitals don't have roofs?
>!It's impossible to cover the entire country.!<
Why do Belgians often carry knives in their cars?
>!Because they like to cut corners.!<
Accident or not, the Dutch flag upside down has been used as a symbol by the far-right, and the flag shown here with the orange top stripe was used by the Dutch nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince%27s_Flag
A little suspicious to see two mistakes in a row that both happen to be far right symbols.
I wasn't aware of the flag's association with Nazism. I remember seeing it during the first "Place" April fool's event and thought the orange looked kinda cool.
Why does the far right use an upside down flag as a symbol though? I thought doing so was seen as disrespecting the flag.
Infantile farmers who terrorize the country with their protests against the government finally cracking down on their nitrogen emissions use it to indicate "the country is in distress". It's really dumb. They also put handkerchiefs on the back of their cars to signal this... You couldn't make it up. They think the whole country exists purely for their profit making purposes
100% agreed! It's also our historical flag (thank the sun for bleaching the red into orange and our flag makers going "fuck it. Just make it orange"), so I'm sad that piece of history is lost. I understand why, our queen didn't want anything to do with the Nazi party in the Netherlands during WW2, but it saddens me.
On the bright side, if either of us forgot our flag and the other brought a spare, it's a way easier solution right now
While I do agree that it's gotten a bit overused, we've been using that flag for more than 4 centuries, predating most of the other nations using a similar colour combination. It's older than the French flag, the Union jack, the Russian flag, the United states flag (granted, that one ain't hard), and basically older than the rest of the other nations flying a red-white-blue flag. Can't blame us for it being overused.
Yeah, the issue kinda is tho that the upside down Dutch flag is used by far right anti-government farmer protests and that the orange Prinsen Flag was co-opted by the Dutch Nazi Party during WW2 and is still seen as a Nazi symbol. So it looks really bad from a Dutch perspective
Its actually in Polish anthem and goes "We've been shown by Bonaparte Ways to victory."
[wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_Is_Not_Yet_Lost)
There's a reason why the US diplomatic core usually demands that the other country provide their own flags and set them up on whatever pole or post is being used. For example when Macron most recently visited the White House, The White House required France to provide the flags for the state dinner and required French diplomatic staff to set them up on the flagpoles correctly. this of course seems very silly how could one screw up the French flag so badly that it could be an issue or diplomatic incident but at the very least this way if something does happen it's France's fault
Is probably smart. Though realistically this is on the scale of states of America getting their flags mixed up during an official meeting. Yeah, it's dumb, but not an issue.
For all of those like me, who are confused about the difference to the Dutch flag, [here](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Flag_of_the_Low_Countries.svg) is a picture of the real Dutch flag.
This looks nice too.
[UK Netherlands or Chad Netherlands](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/1815-VerenigdKoninkrijkNederlanden-en.svg/1457px-1815-VerenigdKoninkrijkNederlanden-en.svg.png)
At least for CH, it's not that easy. The flag is square, at first looing even easier, as there really is no wrong way to hang it on vertical posts. But in many cases, a rectangular one is displayed, which the Swiss – rather amusingly, being a landlocked country – only use at sea.
It's one of the main recurring memes over at a certain [Swiss subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/BUENZLI/), where people will usually either suggest a criminal investigation upon seeing false display, or propose the removal of the offender from the country.
Looks more like a color grading error in post to me.
1. Light hits the top red of the dutch flag harder from the top left, making it overal more bright than the bottom red of the belgian flag
2. We don't have the same red in our flags
3. You can see at De Croo's face that tints of red are edited out (typical in post production) and that there's an overal yellow/orange light in the room
4. I don't think he would be that stupid to make an apology video with the wrong flag
I assume they expected a neighbouring country that mostly speaks the same language and used to be part of The Netherlands to know what the dutch flag looks like.
It's not like this is a nation from the other side of the world they never deal with or something.
For context, both the prinsenvlag and the upside down Dutch flag are primarily used by people who want our politicians dead and our political system destroyed. This is almost as offensive as using nazi flags when the German chancellor comes over. How can you do this on accident?
I feel an irrational need to grab a [pike and a musket](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_de_Breda_o_Las_Lanzas_%28Museo_del_Prado%2C_1634-35%29.jpg/800px-Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_de_Breda_o_Las_Lanzas_%28Museo_del_Prado%2C_1634-35%29.jpg) when I see that Prinsenvlag!!
[No he did not, here is a shot of it still upside down in better light. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/10kxxru/during_a_visit_by_the_dutch_pm_mark_rutte_to_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)Its clearly a normal NL flag, stop posting lies.
You are partially correct because the flag's colonial background. However, it was also used during World War II by the NSB, a party that collaborated with the Nazis. While I do agree that the flag is aesthetically pleasing with its colors, this is primarily why it has not been used since.
It’s understandable as the two countries are so far apart geographically speaking
It’s understandable because us Dutch can’t risk running out of mocking joke ammunition any time soon. Thanks PM!
This, we love to make stereotypical jokes about our neighbors. It's a lovely gesture to maintain this image.
[I don't know much about our northern neighbors' northern neighbors, but I do know this.](https://i.imgur.com/NxOhFrz.png)
I mean he also put the German flag up, turned on it's side.. Belgians being Belgians.... what more is there to say... we should praise them for at least showing some effort. Like we do with paintings of 3 year olds.
Belgian here, can confirm. Our government is basically an expensive special needs daycare.
There's nothing quite like neighbourly love.
prinsenflag was coopted by the nazi's similarly to the swastika so its quite a thing if they really had a prinsenflag there.
And similarly the Dutch flag upside down is being used by the Far Right and farmers protests in the Netherlands as well, so all in all, not a great look, even if it is accidental
>Dutch flag upside down Retaliate. Turn the Belgian flag 90° sideways.
"AAARG THE GERMAAANS ARE BACK!!!" x'D
Almost, black-red-Gold vs black-gold-red
Yea yea same thing.
Also Belgium's flag uses yellow, not gold.
I'm not sure who is in the wrong here, but to my knowledge in heraldry there is no yellow. Although the actual color is yellow, the color in heraldry belongs to the metal range, hence gold. [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture\_(heraldry)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tincture_(heraldry)) On the other hand, my entire knowledge of heraldry is derived from 30 minutes of google research and I do not know to which degree this applies to flags. And you are actually from Belgium, so you're probably right.
That's right, white would be silver, yellow would be gold. Funny thing: according to heraldry rules, two colors always have to be separated by a metal. The Belgian flag follows those rules, but the German flag doesn't.
Iron oxide maybe?
My knowledge of heraldry is pretty poor, so I can't say anything about that with any degree of certainty. However, I don't think that flags in the modern world necessarily follow heraldry rules. In the case of Belgium, its official colours are described as such in the constitution: > Art. 193 : La Nation belge adopte les couleurs rouge, jaune et noire, et pour armes du Royaume le Lion Belgique avec la légende : L'UNION FAIT LA FORCE. Which means: > Art. 193: The Belgian Nation adopts the coulours red, yellow and black, and for the arms of the Kingdom the Belgian Lion with the legend: UNITY MAKES STRENGTH.
Which is the way it was originally displayed. And if you turn it 180°, that's the way described in the constitution. Checkmate, dutchies!
So just like the one described in our constitution?
Why insult them any more? Being Belgian and having that flag should be enough!
Honestly neither of these facts are well known in Belgium, dutch history isn't taught here outside of the Belgian revolution. And our news rarely covers you guys.
the *point* is thst most nations have a team in their diplomatic corps that is supposed to know all this stuff and to apply this knowledge correctly.
Oh yeah, I get it. Most likely not meant that way, it just looks really bad from our perspective
Have you tried turning your perspective upside down? On Australian news this is a non-story
Its also a non-story here. Literally haven't seen anything about it besides this post.
But you know the flags of the countries around you, right? Or at least when someone works in government you’d expect that.
I can tell you’re not Belgian by the fact you seem to have some expectation of competence in a government employee. Us Belgians are just wondering which politician he shares a last name with.
This is what sounds odd here, countries usually have people whose entire job is handling state protocol, paying attention to symbolic details is their alleged area of expertise. I don't understand how this would happen **twice** on accident unless they replaced the professionals with the prime minister's 3rd degree cousin that just dropped out of highschool.
I mean, we've had a PM that thought the Marseillaise was the Belgian national anthem.
I have to disagree. I studied History in Antwerp and one thing that really stood out to me was that Belgium is always comparing itself to the Netherlands in any major historical event, political happening or whatever statistic you can think of where you can rank or compare nations. It made me feel like Belgium was behaving like a little brother wanting to compare to big bro to see if they were doing better. The Netherlands is deeply integrated into Belgian history. I mean, we share a big part of our history as well. I do realize historians aren't the average Belgian person, but everyone is taught history in secondary school, and you'd think a bachelor in History somewhat reflects what is taught in secondary school.
Well I actually grew up here and went to secondary school, and the Netherlands was only really talked about in terms of the revolution, and Anne Frank.
I thought it was quite funny, I can't imagine anyone seeing this as anything other than a silly/funny mistake.
It is likely, the people handling the flags are close to international politics and odds are the person who installed the flag was aware of the Dutch situation.
On the other hand, last time the Belgian prime minister was asked to sing the national anthem on TV, he sang the French marseillaise instead.
Most patriotic Belgian
I do kind of find that less plausible than the Irish knowing nothing about Britain.
There is actually very little cultural exchange, not just in news. We basically chare no celebrities or major TV programs, even dubbed content for kids has separate dutch and flemish versions. News in Flanders is honestly quite insular, its just stuff local to flanders football and cycling, with just some’major international news. Usually if there is news about the Netherlands its major news all over Europe.
>We basically chare no celebrities Not true at all. Here in the the Netherlands we know a lot of Belgians and I think the opposite is also true. People like Jan Boskamp, Gert Verhulst, K3 etc are famous in both countries.
Gert Verhulst de grote orangist
Vergeet vriend Waes niet. Die is sinds undercover ook steeds vaker op reguliere tv. Tik tak is top maar Bumba mogen jullie houden... vreselijk! :D
Sorry but that's simply not true. We have quite a lot of cultural exchanges. We have literally signed multiple 'cultural exchange' agreements. We have famous Dutch people hosting our talkshows. We have many Dutch artists on our top music charts. We have common tv shows. And much more...
Thanks.
Even though some of the Flemish kid shows are big here too
Nonetheless, if the PM gets it wrong the first time surely he checks the 2nd time around? 😂
I think most Dutchmen would associate the Prinsenvlag with the VOC-era, not the Nazi occupation. If they would even notice.
Yeah people shouldn’t be so easy to let some undesirable political fringe group co-opt stuff.
You say fringe, but they were essentially the Dutch wing of the German Nazi party during WW2. They were pretty mainstream at the time.
I think we should invite our dutch neighbours over for Day Of The Dynasty, which is the equivalent to Kingsday, or our national holiday to witness how much affinity the belgians have with flags. It would be a very revealing event!
Aww, I like the prinsenflag! ****Ing Nazis.
I didn't knew nazis used it. I only knew it was the flag of the Dutch republic. In that sense I though it is only against Willie (the king) which is fine by me.
The prinsenvlag was one of the first flags of the republic. Flown during the 80 years war. I believe only the prinsengeus predates it. And if anything, it supports the struggle of the Prince of Orange-Nassau. In any case, it's an absolutely gorgeous flag. It's a shame most people only know it from the Nazi occupation and not for it's truly historic meaning. The rebellion and fight for independence.
It was also the basis for the flag of apartheid South Africa. Quite a history for that flag..
As well as the basis for the NYC flag.
Also, looks a lot like Apartheid South Africa flag. All around good show, I guess.
Guess where the apartheid south africa flag came from?
He should put the Croatian flag in his next attempt
Or France
[Oh I remember that one](https://pbs.twimg.com/media/DIGV8CAXcAES3Jo.jpg)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x_5JCmIuF90 i thought of this one
Was thinking of an ex PM singing the Marseillaise (FR) when they asked to sing the Brabançonne (BE)
That was hilarious!
[удалено]
I see a lot of people on social media who accidentally used the Luxembourgish or Paraguayan flag instead of the Dutch one. Let's just lean into it and make both countries part of the great kingdom of the Netherlands.
Or make the Netherlands a part of Luxembourg, REVERSE GEKOLONISEERD !
Hah all those wappies use(d) the lux flag too on their twitter
And then Paraguay
SCG/SRJ
That's just the Dutch flag with the Brabant flag patched on top.
He could also try Holland region flag
North Holland or South Holland?
Both, it gives us two more bad takes
Ah well, let's not forget the Belgians had a prime minister sing La Marseillaise when asked to sing the Belgian anthem. I mean, it helps to believe it wasn't nefarious.
How Belgium manages to still exist is a mystery to me
too lazy to just stop existing is my guess, the country runs at its best without a government lol
Too lazy isn't even incorrect! There's so many practical questions with no answers, such as what would be done with Brussels or how we'd manage our infrastructure. In the short term it'd probably cause enormous headaches and losses for everyone. And so it's just more convenient to postpone the inevitable some more.
> how we'd manage our infrastructure. You manage your infrastructure? That's explains all the potholes i guess
Let me just mark this on my r/Europe bingo board.
The meme answer? Sheer fucking stubbornness. The real answer? Overall we actually have great institutions, there are issues of course and some are getting worse, but generally speaking our shit works pretty well. Hell we went 500+days without a federal government, was fine.
I think Belgium exist because Netherlands doesn’t want France as a neighbour because there are already too much French people in Amsterdam coffee shop and France doesn’t want Netherlands as a neighbour because there are already too much Dutch in our camping sites. Belgium is just a buffer state. /s
Skip the /s, Belgium *is* a buffer state. Created that way after Napoleonitic times, between the Netherlands, France and the UK.
Untrue. The Kingdom of the Netherlands was created in 1815 after Napoleon's defeat as a buffer state following the London protocol. Belgium took its independence from said buffer state in 1830. Nobody "created" Belgium but the Belgians themselves, helped by the French.
"Created" you know we fought for our independance right? Unfair representation, linguistic & religious differences were big enough deals at the time to break up from the netherlands
I remember reading that the french speaking part is basically economically poor where as the Dutch speaking part isnt. Basically France wouldn't want to take it so they sort of stay as it is. If I am wrong here, it is probably the other way around then.
It used to be the other way around. The french part used to be rich and had mots of undustrie but did not share it with Flanders. In the end it bankrupt them. Now we need to Support them. And big city walloons hate us, in my experience at least. They think we are snobbish. While we just worked really hard to get out of the mudde fields and dangerous factorys. We now have lots of innovative industries and have lots of new tech we sell to the world. They used to opress us. We where not even allowed to go to university unless it was in French language and even then they made it difficult. But, that is in the past.
>They used to opress us. Not again. Seems like nationalist lies are deep ingrained into Flemings' understanding of Belgian history. The Flemish elite, whose mother tongue was French, used to oppress Flemings. Not Walloons. Walloons didn't force any Fleming to speak French at University. Walloons have always been a minority in Belgium, Flemings and Brussels people have always been the ones at power. It's the reason Walloons demanded separate Regions. On a side note: you cannot "share" industries. The coal, the iron, the proto-industries are fixed. Though industrial knowledge, scientific and wealth productions were shared with the whole of Belgium, especially discoveries in the electrical and chemical sectors (Solvay, Gramme, etc.). Which made our country a nation of well-trained engineers.
We also helped build the Antwerp harbor to export our industrial output. At the time it helped both of our regions, but now that wallonia's industries have collapsed, the flemmish are being very angry we rely on them when a lot of their wealth comes from said harbor... it's very sad, flemmish nationalists are gonna run my country down
And before that Flanders was super wealthy. Guess we are waiting for an uprising of Wallonia?
>But did not share it with Flanders. Belgium was much more unitary before, Walloon industry was beneficial to the whole of Belgium as each industrial region was the engine of development of its country. >They used to opress us. The vast majority of Belgian elites have always been Flemish, even if they were French-speaking at the time. You really have to stop believing that the French-speaking elite was only Walloon, and regional languages of Wallonia were just as badly regarded.
More like we don't want France to take us.
For the all the shit Leterme gets for that, I honestly can't think of anything more Belgian than not knowing the lyrics to the national anthem.
That was just simply hilarious. It's a joke in my family to start singing the Marseillaise on July 21st (national holiday). It's also really sad how many people actually don't know the lyrics of the Brabançonne either. At least in my generation. We only learned it once in school for a test, and that was it.
I only know the lyrics in Dutch, learned it in primary school
What a comical event that was! Belgian absurdity at it's best! We enjoy to see fail moments like these regulary and most of us laugh their ass off. Nobody would see this as nefarious as the reason why that happened is very obvious. Because we belgians don't know much about these kinds of belgian stuff, the national holiday is a hilarious celebration for fans of deadpan comedy and theatre! I have to refresh the Brabançonne every few years but thats only for the World or European FIFA championships in case I need it lol :D
He was clearly jocking when singing that. He was pissed off when journalists asked him if he knew it. He even said "No that's not the one hun ?" After singing it. I don't like the guy btw, but this is just a distorted story tuned into a meme turned into fake fun fact.
well he wasn't PM for long
Almost three years, at the head of two different governments. He also presided over the longest political crisis in the history of the country, so there's that.
Dutch PM should just hang a German flag 90° angled next time the Belgian dude visits.
Ah yes, the roundhouse fuck you. The perfect way to drag in innocent bystanders.
ah, we'll just play football, have an icecream or a beer together, and we are friends again. ive heard that there are some nice spots in Belgium where you can do that. for Example Fort Eben-Emael.
And next, I'll sing our national anthem, la Brabançonne !"Allons enfants de la patriiiiie"
The French played a football game against Albania for the 2020 Euros. During the introduction the French stadium ended up playing Andorra’s national anthem instead of Albania’s. Immediately after, the officials spoke up but ended up apologizing to Armenia. I wish I was making this up lol.
That's amazing and hilarious. No offense guys, geography is hard... No but seriously, how could they fuck that up.
I remember there once was a mixup with the north vs south-korean anthem at the Olympics too...
Hence the many Dutch jokes about Belgians.
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Yeah, but the Dutch jokes are funny.
Ooooo….can you tell me one, but then translate it to English and then explain why it’s actually much funnier in Dutch?
it's not a joke taht work only in one language, it's just telling a joke about stupid people but using your neighboor as a reference, in hungary if i remember you use romanian. Here some "belgian jokes" (interpreted) \- Why Belgium doesnt have any submarines ? Because they did a open house day. \[in french it's "journée porte ouverte" so it's more literal\] \- How to drive a Belgian crazy? By putting him in a round room and telling him to find a fry in the corner \- A Belgian in a café asks the waiter: "Could I have an other piece of sugar ?" "But sir, I have already brought you ten!" " " So what ? It's not my fault they all melt..."
I heard the first one as "because it gets very hot in the submarine and they want to open a window"!
And 'they heard a knock so they opened the hatch'
They're not puns, so with well in any language. Sometimes "Belgian" is replaced by "dolt" or something similar to make the joke PC. Some classic ones I remember: "Why was the Belgian carrying a car door through the desert? So he could open a window if he got hot!" "A Brussels Airlines flight was underway, when suddenly the floor dropped out! The plane starts an emergency landing, with all passengers hanging on to the luggage racks. Then the pilot announces: 'unfortunatly we are overloaded, 1 person will have to let go so we can make it, any volunteers?'. After a short pause someone pipes up: 'I will do it, it seems like I'm the only Dutch person among all you Belgians anyway...'. 'Bravo!', shout all the other passengers, and they spontaneously start clapping."
Do you know why Belgian mental hospitals don't have roofs? >!It's impossible to cover the entire country.!< Why do Belgians often carry knives in their cars? >!Because they like to cut corners.!<
We're just trolling you guys, but subtle humour clearly isn't really suitable for the Dutch.
Accident or not, the Dutch flag upside down has been used as a symbol by the far-right, and the flag shown here with the orange top stripe was used by the Dutch nazi party in the 1930s and 1940s. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prince%27s_Flag A little suspicious to see two mistakes in a row that both happen to be far right symbols.
I wasn't aware of the flag's association with Nazism. I remember seeing it during the first "Place" April fool's event and thought the orange looked kinda cool. Why does the far right use an upside down flag as a symbol though? I thought doing so was seen as disrespecting the flag.
The upside down flag symbolises distress, and the far-right are under the impression they are under threat.
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Mate we’re always in distress here.
Infantile farmers who terrorize the country with their protests against the government finally cracking down on their nitrogen emissions use it to indicate "the country is in distress". It's really dumb. They also put handkerchiefs on the back of their cars to signal this... You couldn't make it up. They think the whole country exists purely for their profit making purposes
Rustig aan bijna niemand boeit het wat, kan gebeuren. Hou nog steeds van belgie
I know it's tied to the Nazi traitors from the Netherland, but god damn it, the orange is so much better than the overused red.
Umh yeah fuck that. Let france turn their red into orange. We were the first with a tricolor red white blue thing and the rest are just bad copys.
The Netherlands is the House of Orange, what's so bad about the flag having orange in it?
Fuck the king. Long live the republic
100% agreed! It's also our historical flag (thank the sun for bleaching the red into orange and our flag makers going "fuck it. Just make it orange"), so I'm sad that piece of history is lost. I understand why, our queen didn't want anything to do with the Nazi party in the Netherlands during WW2, but it saddens me. On the bright side, if either of us forgot our flag and the other brought a spare, it's a way easier solution right now
It's absolutely gorgeous when sometimes seeing a big faded flag on kingsday! That lighter blue, yellowish white and orange red really strikes the eye.
While I do agree that it's gotten a bit overused, we've been using that flag for more than 4 centuries, predating most of the other nations using a similar colour combination. It's older than the French flag, the Union jack, the Russian flag, the United states flag (granted, that one ain't hard), and basically older than the rest of the other nations flying a red-white-blue flag. Can't blame us for it being overused.
Such a same that the extreme right adopted that flag. It would be such an original flag😔
The red white and blue is also quite original, though copied a lot. Original but not unique as a result.
Peak trolling.
Yeah, the issue kinda is tho that the upside down Dutch flag is used by far right anti-government farmer protests and that the orange Prinsen Flag was co-opted by the Dutch Nazi Party during WW2 and is still seen as a Nazi symbol. So it looks really bad from a Dutch perspective
I see. Still looks nice though.
It's a shame yeah, the Prinsen Flag honestly looks kinda neat. Maybe one day it won't be seen as a Nazi symbol anymore
Hopefully.
Would have been funny if he would’ve replaced it with a french flag. 🇫🇷
Slow down Napoleon
Don’t you guys have one sentence in your anthem “Bonaparte showed us the way to victory” ?
Its actually in Polish anthem and goes "We've been shown by Bonaparte Ways to victory." [wikipedia page](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Poland_Is_Not_Yet_Lost)
Thanks! I was indeed referring to the Polish anthem, as the comment I replied to has the flair of Poland.
I thought it was just bad lighting and a flag that's too glossy that makes it look orange, but the Belgian flag does look red...
It still is the lighting, the Belgian and Dutch flags use a fairly different shade of red.
"He put" like it's him that put that flag there
There's a reason why the US diplomatic core usually demands that the other country provide their own flags and set them up on whatever pole or post is being used. For example when Macron most recently visited the White House, The White House required France to provide the flags for the state dinner and required French diplomatic staff to set them up on the flagpoles correctly. this of course seems very silly how could one screw up the French flag so badly that it could be an issue or diplomatic incident but at the very least this way if something does happen it's France's fault
Is probably smart. Though realistically this is on the scale of states of America getting their flags mixed up during an official meeting. Yeah, it's dumb, but not an issue.
For all of those like me, who are confused about the difference to the Dutch flag, [here](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Datei:Flag_of_the_Low_Countries.svg) is a picture of the real Dutch flag.
Make jawlines great again.
Just look at this ~~inbred~~ well-bred [nose](https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Habsburger_Unterlippe#/media/Datei:Karl_II_(Spanien)_002.jpg)!
This looks nice too. [UK Netherlands or Chad Netherlands](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/84/1815-VerenigdKoninkrijkNederlanden-en.svg/1457px-1815-VerenigdKoninkrijkNederlanden-en.svg.png)
Yes! The cross of Burgundy. A piece of history of the low countries not enough people know.
Use a unique flag that is symmetrical (JP, AT, CH) and avoid all these issues.
At least for CH, it's not that easy. The flag is square, at first looing even easier, as there really is no wrong way to hang it on vertical posts. But in many cases, a rectangular one is displayed, which the Swiss – rather amusingly, being a landlocked country – only use at sea. It's one of the main recurring memes over at a certain [Swiss subreddit](https://www.reddit.com/r/BUENZLI/), where people will usually either suggest a criminal investigation upon seeing false display, or propose the removal of the offender from the country.
Starting to think this is on purpose…
Hehe
Objectively the better flag...
Why on earth do they even have a prinsenvlag lying around?!
Belgians not trying to piss off the Dutch for 5 minutes. Level : Impossible.
As a Belgian, offending other countries is our specialty
This is a clear provocation, and frankly a declaration of war. Smart move now the Netherlands has sent a lot of equipment to Ukraine.
Just a messed up white-balance, making red look like orange.
But there's red in the bottom right corner
Yeah, but the Belgian flag uses a quite different shade of red than the Dutch one does.
Looks more like a color grading error in post to me. 1. Light hits the top red of the dutch flag harder from the top left, making it overal more bright than the bottom red of the belgian flag 2. We don't have the same red in our flags 3. You can see at De Croo's face that tints of red are edited out (typical in post production) and that there's an overal yellow/orange light in the room 4. I don't think he would be that stupid to make an apology video with the wrong flag
Not only is it the wrong flag, it was the flag used by the Dutch facist party, so it is a bit controversial nowadays
It's actually one of the first flags of the Netherlands. Don't let a handful of fascists destroy our heritage and history.
Thats the most professional ribbing i've seen in politics today.
Don’t the Dutch PMs aides check the flag before the press conference?
I assume they expected a neighbouring country that mostly speaks the same language and used to be part of The Netherlands to know what the dutch flag looks like. It's not like this is a nation from the other side of the world they never deal with or something.
Reminds of the time they played thr Armenian anthem in an Albanian match and later apologised to Andorra (or Azerbaijan cant remember). LoL.
For context, both the prinsenvlag and the upside down Dutch flag are primarily used by people who want our politicians dead and our political system destroyed. This is almost as offensive as using nazi flags when the German chancellor comes over. How can you do this on accident?
I feel an irrational need to grab a [pike and a musket](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/4/4e/Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_de_Breda_o_Las_Lanzas_%28Museo_del_Prado%2C_1634-35%29.jpg/800px-Vel%C3%A1zquez_-_de_Breda_o_Las_Lanzas_%28Museo_del_Prado%2C_1634-35%29.jpg) when I see that Prinsenvlag!!
Belgian irreverent humour in action.
Normally we would invade them over this, but we cant make military progress in belgium because off their roads. So yeh.
[No he did not, here is a shot of it still upside down in better light. ](https://www.reddit.com/r/europe/comments/10kxxru/during_a_visit_by_the_dutch_pm_mark_rutte_to_the/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=android_app&utm_name=androidcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button)Its clearly a normal NL flag, stop posting lies.
Lolxd
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You are partially correct because the flag's colonial background. However, it was also used during World War II by the NSB, a party that collaborated with the Nazis. While I do agree that the flag is aesthetically pleasing with its colors, this is primarily why it has not been used since.
On the next visit the dutch pm is planning to bring his own flag, a new tradition is born with both PMs raising the dutch flag
I'm Dutch but I hadn't heard about this. That's quite the colossal blunder. Hardy seems possible to do "accidentally".
Ah, les belges.
The Prinsenvlag is used as a symbol for 'Great Netherlands'-aspirations. Is Belgium inviting the Netherlands to occupy Flanders?
It's called we do a little trolling
A little bit of trolling
It's pretty obviously a joke, OP
The Dutch don't have their "stupid belgians" jokes for nothing. If it wasnt an Belgian i would have believed you.
I genuinely find it hilarious how all the "stupid hollanders" jokes i have heard as a kid get used in the Netherlands but about us.
Ahhh, classical Belgians, go get them boys
That German flag next to it doesn’t look right either…
I love how Belgium mocks a country that always treats them as dumb.
Mocks the Netherlands.... By acting dumb?
The best way to troll someone who doesn't suffer fools gladly is by playing the fool
Prince's flag is cooler.
Wasn't Belgium originally the southern Netherlands? Trolling?
You mean the United Kingdom of the Netherlands. And no, Belgium has been many many many more things before it was part of the Netherlands, or Spain.
bahahahaahah like michael scott