Nostalgia was the word written in Belgium flags carried during the National Day holiday that was celebrated yesterday in the capital of the country with the presence of the royal family and many thousand citizens standing behind bars that separated them from the cortege.

If we didn’t know that “Nostalgie” is a Belgium radio that makes publicity during the military procession, we could think that the country had been finally divided and Flemish and Walloons would bring to an end a discussion that is almost as old as the country.

But, actually, if we decided to keep on watching the cortege for a while we would easily understand that the division could never happened because the nationalist feeling was in every head, starting with the thousand of hats showing Belgium national colors and ending with the all the hypnotized eyes looking at the king that only moved away when the air cortege started.

In the sky, four Alpha jets draw Belgium’s flag trough colorful lines, which provoked a great visual effect if we manage to forget which use these airplanes normally have. Then it was the time of the F-16, the Allouette helicopters and the A109 fly over the thousands of heads, while people whispered: “what a great air force Belgium has, for such a small country…”

However, the cortege was far from ending. After the representation of the 27 EU member states troops, it was the moment for applauding the troops that are detached in Kosovo, Lebanon and Afghanistan. And it is still difficult to explain the rise of nationalist parties in the last elections?