History, Wonder Tales, Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends The Flemish | Page 23

Flemish feeling of identity and consciousness grew through the events and
experiences of war. The German occupying authorities had taken several Flemishfriendly measures. More importantly, the experiences of many Flemish speaking
soldiers on the front led by French speaking officers catalysed Flemish emancipation.
The French speaking officers barked the orders in French, followed by "et pour les
Flamands, la même chose", which basically meant, "Same thing for the Flemish",
which obviously did not help the Flemish conscripts, who were mostly uneducated
farmers and workers, who didn't speak French at all. The resulting suffering is still
remembered by Flemish organizations during the yearly Yser pilgrimage in Diksmuide
at the monument of the Yser Tower.

RIGHT-WING NATIONALISM IN THE INTERBELLUM AND WORLD WAR II
Main articles: VNV, Verdinaso, Dietsland, and Cyriel Verschaeve
COMMUNAUTARY QUIBBLES AND THE EGMONT PACT
Main articles: Egmont pact, Voeren, and Brussel-Halle-Vilvoorde
RECENT EVENTS
Fake revolution
On 13 Dec, 2006, a spoof news broadcast by the Belgian Francophone public
broadcasting station RTBF declared that the Flemish part of Belgium had decided to
declare independence from Belgium, and that the King and Queen of Belgium had left
immediately on a plane. Images were shown of people celebrating and waving flags in
the background. Within minutes of the beginning of the broadcast, the news station

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