'Thank God, we've got rid of them at last'

In December Belgian TV broadcast a news programme stating that 'Flanders had unilaterally declared independence from Wallonia and King Albert II had fled to Africa. The country had ceased to exist'. Only it was a spoof, you see.

Other than the usual 1938 'War of the Worlds' spoof broadcast repercussions, the problem is, it seems to have touched a nerve...

'Flemish independence, until now a marginal notion claimed by extremists, is no longer taboo. The response of many Flemings was revelatory. "Thank God, we've got rid of them at last," was the reaction of a Brussels woman before, disappointed, she learned that the break with the Walloons was only fictitious'

- NZ Herald, 4 January 2007