Partition of Belgium Belgian identity was not defined on racial, ethnic or linguistic lines, but in the civilizational community of the Belgian people. Supporters of a partition of Belgium argue that the synchronized attempts to forge a national identity and culture have been unable to forestall ethno-linguistic rivalries. French was the only official language of Belgium until 1898, even though Flanders was and still is predominantly Dutch-speaking. The government's long refusal to acknowledge Dutch as an official language led to hostilities between Flanders and the French-speaking bourgeoisie who held both political and economic power. These hostilities gave rise to the Flemish movement, which
Belgium in the Eurovision Song Contest 2000 of announcing the results, the country was split into six regions: Brussels, four in the Francophone provinces (the votes from the provinces of Namur and Luxembourg were combined and announced together) and one termed the "Rest of Belgium", covering the five Dutch-speaking provinces where viewing figures were likely to be much lower. Each region announced the actual number of televotes received, rather than converting them into the Eurovision 1-2-3-4-5-6-7-8-10-12 format. Sorce emerged the winner by a margin of over 3,500 votes. Although it did not affect the outcome, there was initially some degree of uncertainty about the disproportionately high number