Belgium: Election season at the heart of Europe (part 2)
Issued on: Modified:
It's a patchwork country at the heart of the patchwork continent that is Europe: a country of 11 million people, with three official languages, and the de facto capital of the EU. In this edition of Europe Now, we head to Belgium.
In our two-part special, we find out how Belgium is functioning since the government collapsed in December and preparing for a "Super Sunday" of elections at the end of May; how climate activism is boosting the national and European Green parties; and what plans Flemish separatists have for dividing Belgium along linguistic lines that also just happen to correlate with a wealth divide.
In part two of our special programme we speak to Guy Verhofstadt, the former Belgian prime minister and leader of Europe's Alliance of Liberals and Democrats group; and we interview Mark Demesmaeker, MEP for the Belgian Flemish separatist party NVA.
Our reporters head out into the rest of Benelux, and meet Joram van Klaveren, a former member of the Netherlands' far-right PVV party who converted to Islam. We also take a look at the fallout for whistleblowers in the wake of the LuxLeaks scandal in Luxembourg.