After the Story of the Netherlands, our southern neighbors can now watch asimilar production: the Story of Flanders. But where the Dutch series mainlyreceived positive reactions, the Flemish series leads to the necessarycriticism from left-wing opposition parties.
The first episode, broadcast on January 1, has so far received praise. On theVRT, more than 1 million viewers saw Tom Waes walking with an Antwerp accentamong the Neanderthals who populated the area that is now called Flanders tensof thousands of years ago. Via the Romans, the Middle Ages, the Eighty Years’War, the emergence of the Belgian state, the industrial revolution and theworld wars, Waes brings the viewer to the present. The program is based on aformat previously used in Denmark and the Netherlands.
Even before the first episode there was trouble in Belgium. Especially aboutthe more than two million euros subsidy that the producer received for it fromall kinds of subsidy pots, with the support of the Flemish government. Thisangered the left-wing opposition parties Vooruit and Groen. Party leaderHannelore Goeman van Vooruit accuses the Flemish government, led by a primeminister of the Flemish-Nationalist N-VA, in Het Nieuwsblad that there ismoney for “nationalist propaganda”, but not for school meals.
It is not surprising that the government is accused of going on a nationalisttour with the series. The Flemish minister-president Jambon leaves no doubtthat the series fits in with the objective that the Flemish government has setitself, namely to let the Flemish people experience their identity ‘withoutcomplexity’.
Flemish nationalism is historically sensitive in Belgium: it is perceived bymany as anti-Belgian. Proponents and opponents therefore roll over each otheron social media, with sometimes vicious jesting about ‘the sorrow of Flanders'(a reference to Hugo Claus’s novel Het Verdriet van België).
All the politicization makes it a task to look at the series neutrally and tojudge the series on its merits, argues historian Marnix Beyen on the site ofopinion magazine Knack. Even if the makers were guaranteed that they couldmake the program in complete freedom.
The way the story is told in the first episode does inspire Beyen withconfidence. “It came as a relief that experts were given ample opportunity tospeak from the start. The difficult processes of archaeological truth-findingand the associated uncertainties also received a lot of attention.”
Not for govt government
The makers, aware of all the sensitivities, seem to try to navigate betweenthe contradictions in the series and not to let themselves be pushed into thefray of the Flemish government. For example, they do not hesitate to move toWallonia if things have happened there that are important for the historicalstory. It is also repeatedly emphasized how migration already played a crucialrole in prehistoric times.
Raf Uten, co-CEO and creative director of De Mensen, the production housebehind the series, started the Story of Flanders three years ago. He couldhave predicted then that this kind of criticism was coming. “While we reallyhad complete freedom. The subsidy providers have never seen just one line ofthe script.”
It does bother him a bit that it is ignored that the series has been worked onwith love and passion for years. “The people who have worked on it for so longare now being put in the corner of Flemish nationalism by some media. Thatstings a bit. We are the same people who made “De Grootste Belg” (as with you”De Grootste Belg” at the time) Greatest Dutchman”). Nobody called us Belgiannationalists at the time. That’s how it works here. “
Uten hopes that the riot will subside and that the reactions will be differentwhen the entire series has been broadcast. “That it really is about thecontent. But the sentiments surrounding Flemish nationalism will notdisappear. In recent years, they have been much worse in the discussion aboutwhat should be included in the Canon of Flanders.”
Meanwhile, there are also Flemish people who do see the humor in the wholeriot. Someone on Twitter is already happy that the Flemish lion did not passby in the first episode.