' or Bye Bye Belgium, also called "The Flemish Secession Hoax," was a

hoax A hoax is a widely publicized falsehood so fashioned as to invite reflexive, unthinking acceptance by the greatest number of people of the most varied social identities and of the highest possible social pretensions to gull its victims into pu ...

perpetrated by the

French-language French ( or ) is a Romance language of the Indo-European family. It descended from the Vulgar Latin of the Roman Empire, as did all Romance languages. French evolved from Gallo-Romance, the Latin spoken in Gaul, and more specifically in Nor ...

Belgian Belgian may refer to: * Something of, or related to, Belgium * Belgians, people from Belgium or of Belgian descent * Languages of Belgium, languages spoken in Belgium, such as Dutch, French, and German *Ancient Belgian language, an extinct languag ...

public TV station

RTBF The ''Radio-télévision belge de la Communauté française'' (RTBF, ''Belgian Radio-television of the French Community'', branded as rtbf.be) is a public service broadcaster delivering radio and television services to the French-speaking Commu ...

on Wednesday, December 13, 2006. Regular programming on the channel ''

La Une La Une () is a Belgian national television channel, owned and operated by the French-language public-service broadcasting organization RTBF. La Une is the equivalent of Flemish station Eén, of the Flemish broadcaster VRT. History INR Expe ...

'' was interrupted for a news bulletin claiming that the

Flemish parliament The Flemish Parliament (Dutch: , formerly called Flemish Council or ''Vlaamse Raad'') constitutes the legislative power in Flanders for matters which fall within the competence of Flanders, both as a geographic region and as a cultural communi ...

had issued a unilateral

declaration of independence A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood or proclamation of independence is an assertion by a polity in a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the ...

from the Kingdom of Belgium, mimicking the Belgian secession from the Netherlands some 175 years earlier. Interviews with prominent Belgian politicians (some of whom had been informed about the hoax) as well as staged footage of the evacuation of the

royal family A royal family is the immediate family of kings/queens, emirs/emiras, sultans/ sultanas, or raja/ rani and sometimes their extended family. The term imperial family appropriately describes the family of an emperor or empress, and the term ...

as well as cheering crowds holding the

Flag of Flanders The flag of Flanders, called the ''Vlaamse Leeuw'' ("Flemish Lion") or ''leeuwenvlag'' ("Lion flag"), is the flag of the Flemish Community and Flemish Region in Belgium. The flag was officially adopted by the Cultural Council for the Dutch Cultura ...

were included so as to add credence to the news report. The broadcast of the report led to widespread alarm and consternation in French-speaking Belgium. A hotline set up by the station was swamped by 2,600 calls, whilst RTBF's website crashed. Thirty minutes into the broadcast, on demand of the media minister of the French-speaking community in Belgium, , an on-screen message identified it as fiction. The hoax was the creation of the journalist and had been prepared over a period of 2 years under the

codename A code name, call sign or cryptonym is a Code word (figure of speech), code word or name used, sometimes clandestinely, to refer to another name, word, project, or person. Code names are often used for military purposes, or in espionage. They may ...

''BBB'' for ''Bye-bye Belgium''. Its goal was to show Belgians the intensity of the country's issue, and the real possibility of a split of Belgium. In the years coming to the hoax there was rising Flemish separatism and the

Vlaams Belang , ideology = , predecessor = Vlaams Blok , position = , europarl = Identity and Democracy , european = Identity and Democracy Party , youth_wing = Vlaams Belang Jongeren , colours = , ...

party received strong support in the regional elections. The hoax almost became reality in 2007 after a major political crisis drove many to believe that the country's division was almost certain. Prominent Belgian politicians, including

Prime Minister A prime minister, premier or chief of cabinet is the head of the cabinet and the leader of the ministers in the executive branch of government, often in a parliamentary or semi-presidential system. Under those systems, a prime minister is not ...

Guy Verhofstadt Guy Maurice Marie Louise Verhofstadt (; ; born 11 April 1953) is a Belgian politician who was the leader of the Alliance of Liberals and Democrats for Europe from 2009 to 2019, and has been a member of the European Parliament (MEP) from Belgium ...

, Flemish Minister-President Yves Leterme and Walloon Minister-President

Elio Di Rupo Elio Di Rupo (; born 18 July 1951) is a Belgian politician who has served as the minister-president of Wallonia since 2019. He is affiliated with the Socialist Party. Di Rupo previously served as the prime minister of Belgium from 6 December 201 ...

, condemned the report as "irresponsible." International reaction included an angry statement by

Jean-Claude Juncker Jean-Claude Juncker (; born 9 December 1954) is a Luxembourgish politician who served as the 21st Prime Minister of Luxembourg from 1995 to 2013 and 12th President of the European Commission from 2014 to 2019. He also served as Finance Minister ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, who said, "This is not the kind of issue you play around with."

References

External links

BBC news reportBelgian viewers fall for TV hoax announcing breakaway state
''International Herald Tribune'' article documenting the hoax.

(in French). Journalistic hoaxes Flanders Hoaxes in Belgium 2006 hoaxes 2006 in Belgian television Television controversies in Belgium Political controversies in television {{belgium-tv-stub

See also

References

External links