Europe Is Souring
After three Covid years, we made it back to the old comtinent and Belgium.
A lot has remained unchanged. The Sunday morning little breads, pistollets, homemade or from the bakery, taste as decliciously as 25 years ago. Twice-fried Belgian fries define what fries are all about, especially when paired with a strong beer and a large pot of mussels with onion and celery. The speed limits in Belgium remain as confusing as ever, as are so many traffic rules. I surely misread some Speeding limited and expect one or two speeding tickets from the many speeding cameras in Flanders.
Plenty has changed for the good as well. Many old building have been restored to their original glory. The country felt as it if it put on a new coat, and underwent an overall clean up, with plenty of flowers everywhere and flags. Some of the places we visited, Gent, Zoutleeuw, De Haan, Beringen, all shine.
And yet, when you talk to people, read the news or scroll through Flemish Twitter, you hear a different story. The distrust of government institutions is at its highest. Ordinary farmer are in the street. Nobody believes the government when it comes to energy policy, Covid, or Russia.
I was used this type of conspiracy rethoric and distrust from “freedom-loving-American-patriots”. It is no longer limited to the woods of Idaho, Texas, or New Hampshire. It is in Flanders, in the fields of Holland, in England. The general sentiment in Europe is sour. People aren’t content, and anticipating some sort of major (political) change. People had enough. Something is brewing.