Belgians Greet New King With Outpouring of Temporary Patriotism
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Belgium put on a rare show of flag-waving patriotism to mark the departure of one king and the arrival of another, and to temporarily forget the regional tensions that gnaw at the country’s unity.
Crowds wearing the national colors of black, yellow and red watched from the Brussels royal park as Albert II, 79, abdicated and his son Philippe was installed in the federal parliament as the seventh king since Belgium’s independence from the Netherlands in 1830.