However, as "Vremya Novostei" notes, one can speak of that only conditionally: after all, Belgium did not exist at all in the times of the novel's heroes. It is only 170 years old. So who are the Belgians, whose country assumed the presidency of the European Union on July 1 and will shape its policy until the end of the year?
According to statistics, they work on average less than other Europeans, and it is hard to catch them at work, which for some reason does not affect their standard of living. They smoke a lot and die on the road more often than others, but they live just as long as the average European. Perhaps because they have more doctors per capita than anywhere else on the Old Continent. Belgium has a population of 10 million, and its population density is second only in Europe to that of the neighboring Netherlands.
The outside world knows little about it. Its fate is to be in the shadow of the European Union and NATO, whose headquarters are in Brussels. More than a thousand foreign journalists inhabiting this Mecca almost never write about the country that took them in. Only if something very "juicy" or "racy" happens. Once, while on vacation in Spain, neighbors at an international table, having learned that I came from Belgium, could recall only Belgian chocolate, beer, and pedophiles. Belgians are offended, although they are not burdened with a national pride complex (but who would like that?). Yes, they all recognize themselves as citizens of Belgium, but first as Flemings or Francophones, and in Brussels – increasingly simply as Europeans. And in first place is belonging to the family, circle of friends and colleagues, and the small homeland.
Judging by the local press, the country is torn by a conflict between Flemings and Francophones. They are indeed not like each other. They cannot figure out who is dependent on whom. In Antwerp or Leuven, they may turn their backs on you if you try to make yourself understood in French. But only in a nightmare could one imagine them shooting each other. In seven years of living in Belgium, I have become convinced that reports of the severity of the conflict are somewhat exaggerated by politicians who are dividing their own pie. Belgians treat the state with irony. They grumble while filling out tax returns (taxes here are among the highest in Europe). Among state institutions, they value most the police, which is unobtrusive on the streets but will help when needed; the social security system, which allows even outright losers to live with dignity, not to mention the elderly and the sick; and the educational system, which is far from the worst in Europe but is accessible to everyone. In last place is politics. Especially that which is done at the federal level. Few people are interested in it. Unless there is another corruption scandal.
Once in my memory, a million Belgians remembered the state and went out to a demonstration with white balloons. The infamous pedophiles tortured five girls to death. "Where are the people we pay to run the state?" the demonstrators asked. "Why can't they protect our children? Let them resign." And the ministers resigned. On their own, without waiting for elections. Belgian cities are accustomed to being independent of kings, dukes, and cardinals. On the central square there is not a palace, not a cathedral, but a town hall with a bell tower, surrounded by guild and trade houses. The grandest building in Belgium is not a royal castle, not a parliament, and certainly not a government residence, but the Palace of Justice. Belgians managed to convict the then NATO Secretary General Willy Claes for past financial sins committed in his post in the Belgian government. Belgium believes that those guilty of crimes against humanity can and should be tried in any country, regardless of their citizenship and the place of the crime. Brussels resisted to the end the departure to Chile of Pinochet, who had been arrested in England. In Brussels, four Rwandan citizens guilty of organizing genocide were sentenced to long terms. The precedent led to lawsuits against Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon and other suspects. Human rights have no state borders.
If one believes polls and statistics, the Belgian character is made of paradoxes. Belgians are reputed to be the most fervent racists in Europe; in the country's second-largest city, Antwerp, in last year's elections the pro-fascist Flemish Bloc received the most votes and took a third of the seats in the city council. But this is one of the most Muslim countries in Western Europe: a quarter of Brussels' population prays to Allah. Since this year, the Te Deum service with the royal family has been canceled in the Catholic cathedral on the national holiday: the Belgian monarch is king not only of Catholics. More than half of the Belgians surveyed are in favor of sending away even immigrants who have legally settled in the country if they have not found work. Nevertheless, Belgium has one of the most liberal laws for receiving refugees. Immigrants from poor African and Asian countries have been elected to the councils of many Brussels communes, but here they do not like our compatriots who came with money to seek a better life. The May demarche of refusing visas to all Russians was a clumsy gesture even by the admission of the Belgians themselves. But there is no smoke without fire.
The national character changes over the decades, and lately the word "tolerance" is heard more and more in Belgium. Not only in relation to immigrants, but also with regard to the right of a person to dispose of his or her own body and arrange his or her personal life. In a Catholic country, abortions have been legalized, cohabitation is practically equated with marriage, the parliament is likely to pass a bill allowing same-sex marriages, and bills on legalizing soft drugs and prostitution are under consideration.
In the construction of the European Union, each country seeks its own interest. France, which alone cannot fulfill the ambitions of a great power, strives to realize them through the might of a united Europe, but without dissolving into the European melting pot. It sees itself as the intellectual and spiritual leader of the Old Continent. In Germany, for historical reasons, it is indecent to speak aloud of great-power status. But the Germans see themselves as the economic center of Europe without state borders. The British joined the union in order not to find themselves on the political sidelines and to maintain influence on the continent. They would like to make the EU something like a free trade zone and nothing more.
It is difficult for Belgium to claim the role of leader, and it is not afraid to cede part of its statehood to the union center. It fell to its lot to organize the final preparations for introducing euro cash. According to polls, the government enjoys the full support of citizens, who are in favor of the euro, a common foreign policy, the creation of a European army, the transformation of the European Commission into an EU government, and even general elections of a "president of Europe". Belgium, which frayed the nerves of the French at last year's summit in Nice and proved itself a leader of the small EU countries, will try to continue its "pro-European" breakthrough. The Belgian presidency promises to be brighter than the Swedish one – correct but minimalist. One will have to deal with the descendants of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak.