European Diary:Belgians tuning into the French language television channel RTBF last Wednesday got the shock of their life when they saw the news anchors announcing a revolution.
In a news flash that cut in after the evening news, the channel's regular team of journalists delivered a 1½-hour running commentary on Flanders's secession from Belgium. After years of propping up the poorer French-speaking neighbouring region of Wallonia, the Flemish parliament had finally voted to leave the kingdom.
Roads were blocked and police were deployed on the streets. The broadcaster showed emotional crowds waving banners in defence of the state at the royal palace in Brussels, a reporter speculating that Belgian monarch King Albert II had fled to the Congo and a host of experts and politicians giving opinions on the alleged coup d'état.
Of course the news was an elaborate hoax, a kind of 21st century Belgian War of the Worlds broadcast designed to grab the headlines and people's imagination. And while it may not have sparked the same level of mass hysteria as Orson Welles' screenplay provoked almost 70 years ago in the US, many Belgians were fooled.
Within a few hours more than 30,000 telephone calls had flooded into RTBF's telephone switchboard and the channel's website had crashed. Prompted by the alarmed public response, RTBF tried to calm viewers by putting up a message on the screen 20 minutes into the broadcast at 8.51pm, saying the piece was fiction.
The shocked reaction from the public illustrates the deep linguistic and cultural divisions in Belgium and the fact that Flemish independence is not such a far-fetched idea, according to Carl Devos, professor of politics at Ghent University in Flanders.
"There are no federal political parties representing both communities in Belgium, there are two separate media for the French and Flemish speakers and in effect two very different societies that don't mix that much," says Devos. "So it's no surprise that people are nervous and tensions run high over this type of news broadcast."
Indeed, Belgium is often portrayed as two countries in one. In the north, Flanders is renowned for its splendid architecture and strong economy, while Wallonia suffers from high unemployment due to the closure of its heavy steel and mining industries that have become a blight on the landscape in recent years.
Flemish complaints that their taxes prop up the ailing Walloon economy are commonly heard in pub gossip, and far-right party Vlaams Belang, which campaigns on a platform of Flemish independence, is now a force.
RTBF TV director Alain Gerlache said the channel broadcast the hoax because it wanted to stimulate debate about Belgium's future. But with a general election looming next June, a raw nerve was touched among the media, politicians and the public.
Both the Flemish and Francophone media criticised the stunt. French-language daily Le Soir ran with the headline "Belgium Died Last Night" and quoted Francophone socialist party leader Elio Di Rupo saying it was "irresponsible" for a public channel to broadcast the hoax.
Flemish paper De Morgen said the fact that many Francophone viewers took the documentary for real showed the depth of the paranoia in Wallonia. This is hardly surprising, it added. "For years, we have blamed them for everything that went wrong in Belgium. Why shouldn't they fear that the end of country is coming nearer?"
Most analysts criticised the use of real journalists in the broadcast.
Few observers feel the secession of Flanders is likely, at least in the short term. But most Flemish political parties will be seeking greater autonomy and more powers for regional governments.
Regional rather than federal ministers already have exclusive competence over education, culture and even some foreign affairs issues. But many Flemish politicians want to enhance regional control over labour, health and even some fiscal policies in a state reform pact that will be negotiated by the political parties after the elections.
"The fact that the broadcast ridiculed many elements of Flemish nationalism will not help these talks," says Devos from Ghent University. "It could lead to a loss of trust."Perhaps the only positive to emerge from the broadcast was that for once, Belgium's two communities were united in their condemnation.